Each week day, around noon, I go to the fitness center here on the Sprint Campus in Overland Park, KS to workout. Today, the temperature was around 20 degrees - needless to say, I wasn't real fired up about running outside. I chose to stay in shorts and a t-shirt and run on the indoor track (120 meters).
That's where the dilemma started. Running on a track from my high school and college days has always been for speed work. Trying to slow my pace to run for about 45-60 minutes is a little complicated. My mind keeps telling my body, "run faster...the next person I need to pass is just a head of me." I'm constantly overruling my mind by telling my body not to listen to it..."this is a different kind of run we're doing today on a track." In an hour's time, I had to remind my mind probably 15 times to back-off and slow my pace down, that it wasn't a race.
Between running around walkers and constantly slowing myself down, I got in about 5 miles today. My coach in high school always taught us that if you are going to pass someone, you blow by them. This same technique I took into my college years in cross country and track. It's pretty tough to shake an idea that's been with you for the past 30 years. Now, on a day like this, to convince myself that we're not playing by these rules, it makes it even harder.
Luckily, I had my iPod and could settle in with a little Whitesnake or Aerosmith to ease my miles out. Have you ever tried to slow your pace down in the midst of FreeBird when it's really going toward the end of the song - it's almost impossible. Today, I completed 5 miles of fartlek run (sprint, jog, sprint, jog, etc.). I'm looking forward to the rest of the week; the weather people in the area are saying mid 50's by Saturday - that'll atleast get me off the track!
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