I went up to SF and ran Zippy's 5K. It was a mini-distaster (again) with a 21:50 something final time. I went through the mile in 6:42 and I had abosulelty nothing in my legs. I could not force myself up above 176-177 on my HRM. No big pain or deep breathing. Just no energy or will power.
After a year of training from the last Zippy's in May of 2005, I have to admit that I realize some hard truths.
The more intervals I do, the slower I have gotten. 12 weeks of speedwork really put me down for the count. When I run hard I feel like nothing is there.
I have no real will to run race-like efforts. I believe that those days are over. I just don't care about racing that much anymore. I don't mind running them at AT effort but that is about it. Today's effort was AT but unintentionally. I just think that I got out in the race today, had no energy to even push myself and then bonked. No I don't want to take 10 supplements. My body is what it is.
I always said to myself that I would get out of the racing business when it was no longer any fun. I "retired" 10 years ago from racing knowing this but then decided to see if there was still another season or two left. Well, there isn't. Physically and mentally I am no longer a racer. I am OK with it. I can still run "which I love" and let the rest of the gang go race.
I can quietly go back to just being a threshold runner and forget the rest of the crap that I have been putting myself though for the past 12 months. So I can run more days and more miles if I want to and forget the whole getting faster thing. It was my mistress for 23 years (1972-1995) but not any longer.
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