It's a metaphor...
This weekend was a huge reminder that we all go through peaks and valleys as runners. I guess as human beings too, right? Fortunately, my low points have been few and far between. However, I guess that leaves me ill-equipped in dealing with them.
Last week, was a total mess and then yesterday I go out and set a training PR. So when I laced up this morning for an “easy” 12-miler I wasn’t sure what to expect.
The weather here in New York was amazing for the second day straight. A cool 66 degrees with little humidity. Perfect running weather! So I started my first mile clear headed and optimistic. Again, today’s run was supposed to be an “easy” recovery run from yesterday’s 9 mile marathon pace run. According to Jack Daniels, my easy (E) pace is 8:52. So my goal was to just be in that neighborhood and enjoy the run.
If you check out my Garmin Connect data for the run you’ll see that I did just that until about mile 8 or so. Then I decided my legs felt great and I was going to turn this into a “3/1″ run. The basic idea is to run 3 quarters of the run at an easy pace and try to smoke the last quarter of the distance. Finishing with a 8:18, 8:13, and 7:25… I feel it was mission accomplished 
I am officially declaring this the end of my valley and the beginning of a peak. A peak that I can hopefully ride straight through the New York City Marathon on November 7th. 
