A.M. Ran with Jeff and his brother Andrew. Tried 2x2 miles again to get a workout and to test the health. It went better this time. Andrew ran the warmup and the first mile of the first repeat. First repeat was 11:00.1 as planned with the splits of 5:33 and 5:27. HR maxed out at 165 when I briefly surged to sub-5:20 around 1.7 into the repeat, but then quickly dropped to 161-162 and stayed there for the last quarter which was covered in 82. Quarter splits were 83 - 85 (Jeff was talking to Andrew teaching him how to relax) - 82 - 83 - 81 - 82 - 82 - 82. I noticed that while HR was OK, and legs felt reasonable, the respiratory rate was high, I was huffing and puffing as if we were running 5:15. I attributed that to reduced lung capacity from the illness.
Normally in the past at this point I would have said - great, let's do another repeat. However, I am trying a change of attitude. I realized that I have been running harder than optimal in my workouts. It is easy for me to do. My legs hardly ever hurt. My cardio is always up to task. The limiting factor is the nervous system. So the natural tendency is to max out the nervous system in an attempt to give the muscles and the cardio a challenge. Also to hit a faster time. But the nervous system is a funny beast. It is not easy to tell you are taxining it. And the plenalty is high. It really does not like to be red-lined. It works like a photocop. You do not notice anything, no flashing lights behind you. And then a week later you get a ticket in the mail. Except this kind of ticket comes with no explanatory note. It says says - pay $200 or else and does not tell you what you did wrong. So I asked myself an honest question. How much further do you think you could have gone at that pace today without slowing down? And an honest answer was - no more than 3.5. So based on that I said, next repeat - just a mile. So we jogged 0.5 and then ran 5:28.4 with the splits of 81 - 83 - 83 - 81. I felt decent, even considered going to 2000, but said to myself - Discipline! Do not get too excited. The pace feels harder than it should, something is still not quite right. Then we jogged to the house to make it 10 total for the run. The total time was 1:12:20. Then 2 more with Benjamin in 17:24. P.M. 2 with Jenny in 18:48. Julia ran the first 1.5 with us in 14:37. 0.5 with Joseph in 5:15.
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