I had lunch with Gina, a friend with whom I trained for the 2010 New York Marathon. We would go for weekly long runs that spiked with an 18 miler. While she is a great athlete and super fit, I always felt like I was faster than her and was holding back a little in our runs. So of course, what happens? She shatters me in the marathon by nine minutes (3.28 to 3.37).
This isn't the first time this has happened. In high school and college, when I actually ran on a team, I would routinely train with the better runners on the team and totally kept up with them in the workouts. Speed work, long runs, intervals - I was up there. The coach would get all excited that I was improving and ready for a big breakthrough. When it actually came time to race, I would be nowhere near where I should have been based on my workouts. It was probably a combination of nerves on my end and the better runners being gamers. I clearly am not a gamer.
This is why I need to train much faster than I should if I am going to break 3.30 and Mike. Assuming I am going to flail on race day, I need to be in 3.20 shape or better so I have enough of a window to make failure acceptable. In pursuit of this dream of a mediocre performance, I busted out a 46.59 10k run on the treadmill today - I and my left leg are definitely ready to hit the roads tomorrow.
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