And once in a way you have a bad run...

This morning's run was pretty dismal. 

I got out to do my usual hour long run but absolutely wasn't feeling it. It could have been that the intense cardio session I had with Dom just last evening had tired me out too much. It could have been the lack of a restful sleep last night. Maybe it was because I had swapped my usual banana pre-run snack for an apple instead (though I highly doubt that). Or maybe it was because I had started really late (6:00 am) and it was already hot and humid. It could have been all those things or the fact that I just wasn't in the mood. 

I had completed a little more than a kilometer when at the turn into Sterling road from Kothari lane, a bunch of  bored stray dogs decided to get their early morning kicks by barking and chasing me for a slight distance. It was annoying and a litle worrying but I continued on. A little later my fuel came undone and fell down by my feet. I just about avoided a trip-up-and-face-plant situation and a potentially embarrasing scene. Nothing seemed to be going right in the 10 minutes that I has been on this run. I decided that I had had enough, picked up my pace a little bit and headed on home. Sometimes you just have run days like this. It can't be helped.

Wednesday's run was a different story though. I had a nice 3K session with Dom for company. Though it was meant to be a slow recovery run, managed to do it at a nice fast pace of 6'05". The first km was at a steady warm up pace of 7'00"ish and the next 1.8 km was at a tempo pace of 6'15"ish and the last 200 meters was a flat out sprint. It was good, quick and intense.

At the Marina Rinnerz event, I got quite a few "What happened to you? Why are you only doing a 10K?" Other than an injury-related excuse no other response is accepted. I realized that people view running 10K events as a step-down after you've run Half Marathons.  But I find that doing these shorter more intense runs are far more beneficial for my muscle strength and overall fitness rather than the 2+ hours of continuous running. The latter will develop your endurance, for sure, which is also important in fitness but I think a balance of the two will lead to better overall development.

I'm looking at signing up for another 10K in April/May, DRHM 2017 Half Marathon in July and maybe 2 more 10Ks after that - one in Sept/Oct and one in December. The last one should have me meet this year's goal.

Here's to more running, better running and faster finishes.