10K Take 1: Epic Fail

Wow, that was really bad. My last run I mean. There are no words. It was totally my fault and I know exactly where I went wrong but it still stings. Let's take a look:

First off, I missed a run this week. Not the best thing to do with a race so close but the weather did not cooperate. Now, missing a run does not account for a crappy run but it certainly doesn't help either. The big problems happened during the run.

I'm not gonna say I'm an experienced runner. Still many miles to grind to consider myself that. But as I close in on  my first year of continuous running, you would expect me to solve at least some basic issues. Issues like my unexplained tendency to blast off early. For the life of me I can't seem to slow down that first mile and a half. When I see my splits for most runs they are pretty even  except the first one or two. I will do 14 minutes for the first one then slow way down. The thing is, I can't tell the difference. When I took off today, I knew I was running six miles so I made a real effort to slow down. When I check the Garmin though, my pace was in the thirteens. What the...?! Try to slow down even more yet manage to finish the first mile at 14:23. 

Then it got really bad...

I'm a guy alright? We do stupid things. After failing at a proper slow down, I thought: "Well, why don't we try to keep up this pace the whole run?" Well, now thinking back, it was an idiotic idea. Long runs are supposed to be done at an easy pace. They are supposed to be done to build your endurance not your speed. All that valuable information seemed to have left my brain momentarily. And so I kept it up. Second mile: 15:48 (usually in the 16:30's) By then I was starting to feel the consequences of my actions and I just couldn't keep it up. The third mile I managed to do a "normal" 16:30 but that was it. It all collapsed from there. Had to stop. Later on I had to stop again. Then again. Miles 4,5 and 6 happened in the dismal 17's with mile 5 clocking at almost 18 minutes (lot of walking). 

I wanted to quit around mile 4. I felt terrible. During the last three miles, I basically walked whenever the road even hinted at being uphill. But I dug deep and managed to finish. Not my finest hour.  

Life goes on. As it has been my custom, I have to look at the positive here. First, I felt like quitting and didn't. Did the whole thing even if I walked some. Second, total time was 1:39:16. When I registered for the 10K and I was asked for an estimated finish time I put a conservative 1:50:00 thinking I could pull it off in 1:40:00. After this poor excuse for a run, I'm thinking that if I can even out my pace to something manageable, I might come under that. Totally doable I think and it actually involves slowing down some. We'll see how it goes.