I don’t pretend to be a perfect runner, and I want to document my process during my Dopey training as honestly as possible. The truth of the matter is that I fell out of my running groove for a couple of weeks. I went on vacation for two weeks and even though I did intend on running (I packed all of my workout clothes and shoes), I only ran once while I was away.
I have a lot of respect for people who can get out there and do this without any hesitation, but In my case, bad habits die hard. I am not a natural runner by any means, and this doesn’t come easy for me, because of that, I find myself quite literally dragging my feet sometimes.
All of that aside, I finally got back out there yesterday and my run wasn’t a complete fail. I expected to end up walking most of it but surprisingly, I maintained my overall avg pace of 14 m/m. The only thing concerning me at the moment is that I am concentrating more on speed training than distance training.
I’ve been obsessing on getting faster and honestly I think its doing more harm than good. I’m getting extremely fatigued after my runs and they’re feeling more like HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) runs that endurance runs. Personally, I don’t do these races to break any records, I just want to make sure I finish them and enjoy them along the way. So I’m going to be tweaking the plan a little…
New training objective:
I’m going to continue following the Jeff Galloway program so that I can base my training runs on the distances they recommended, but I’m no longer focusing on pace. As long as I finish my runs at a 16 m/m pace (the accepted pace for runDisney) I’ll be happy.
I’m not sure how well this will turn out, but running isn’t a “one size fits all” sport. You have to experiment and see what works for you, and that’s what I plan to do.
I’m always open to any advice from fellow runners so PLEASE feel free to share what works for you, or what you think I should try.
