Merely a Passenger

Sometimes when I run I feel like a passenger.  The head, the legs, the lungs, they all have a little thing going on and I simply can't steer them the way I want them to go until they work it out for themselves.  Today was one of those days.

There was nothing wild about today's run and no pup for company, just good old fashioned pavement pounding.  The plan, which to be fair was written by me on Sunday so is hardly set in stone, said 5-7 miles tempo depending on fatigue level.  I ended up doing 6 which I'd pretty much decided when I left the house and the pace was a tiny bit down on where I'd have liked.  It was a mental battle to get in to it today.  I was sure for the first mile I couldn't do what I wanted to, I just couldn't run even vaguely quickly any more.  The struggle to keep the pace up was real. 

"The legs are too tired," my head said, "this run will be a flop."  "Actually," piped up the legs, "we're only pretty damn tired, we've got a bit of life left in us, just a bit!"  "Shut up," my head replied, "you're too tired and and even if you're not this old bird is just not fit enough any more to do this shit.  She'll be huffing and puffing like a wheezy old bellows in five minutes, hey lungs?"  "Uuuuurrrrghhh" was all the lungs had to say.

Today the legs took over and did their thing leaving the rest of me with little choice but to follow.  The first mile was a bit under pace and the head was still shouting loud objections.  The legs ignored the head and as we turned up the hill so did the lungs.  The second mile came and went also a bit under, but by the third I was getting there and once over the top of Risley my head caught up.  "See legs, we told you she could do it!" said the gleeful head.  "And now we're going down... weeeeee!"  I was only a bit down on pace, I'd done the tough bit into the headwind and up the hills, and now it was just a coast back, or I could keep on putting the effort in and make up what pace I could.  "You can do it," said the head, "can't you legs?"

In the end I was only 4 seconds a mile down on target pace and for today, that's going to count as a win.

Legs 1 v 0 Head