Time Trail, take two

Last night was the second two mile time trial for the training group I joined. This time I was better prepared for the one mile out warm up, and took it slow, hanging out with another slower runner and just chatting it up on the way out.

When we started the time trial I pushed it a little too hard, like I always do, and flew through the first loop (we do four half mile loops.)

By loop two I wasn't feeling so hot, so I slowed up a little, concentrating on just keeping my cadence up and my form good.

By loop three I was concentrating on my breathing, since it didn't seem to want to sync smoothly. I kept feeling like I wasn't getting deep enough breaths.

Somewhere in the fourth loop I got my first side stitch in a long time. I concentrated on my foot strikes (making sure they were mid foot), and tried changing up my breathing.

I didn't feel awesome about how I was running, and most of the run I kept thinking that I was sucking at this. Especially when the faster runners looped me...twice.

When I finished the coach called out my time: 21:53. I had shaved almost two whole minutes off my time.

So that was awesome.

On the run back, I fell in with another runner, and got caught up chatting with her. I wasn't paying attention to my pace at all.

I had mapmyrun running the entire time (with auto pause for when we stood around at the start and end of the two mile loops.)

Apparently I did that last mile faster than my time trial loops. Weird.

I feel a little better about my running, and my progress after this. I had a good time actually talking to some of the other runners.

I am still however questioning my ability to stick with this program. While it is doing amazing things for my running (and my waistline...can't forget that) I've been finding that running is now a source of stress for me, instead of a respite from it. I worry about getting runs in, about missing runs, about spending too much time running and not with my daughter, about how much energy I'm spending on the runs, about how zonked I am after a long run. I worry about the additional stress it's putting on the Hubs as he has to be the parent on duty (or POD) so often when I'm either out running or recovering after a run, sometimes while managing to cook dinner, feed the Toddler and sometimes handle bedtime or nap time duties.

This program is supposed to be for a half marathon. My target Half is in October. This weekend our long run is scheduled to be 11 miles, next week it's a full 13.1. I know the coaches know what they're doing, but I'm looking at that number with doubt. That's my target distance right there. I'm going to run it now, one third of the way through my training plan? Where are they going with this? Can I really keep up with the time commitment as the miles increase?

Yeah, a whole lot of negativity after such a positive run, I know. Right now my plan is to stick it out for a few more weeks, and then reevaluate.