Bending the rules

Pre-workout fuel: Half of a PB&J with Cinnamon Roast coffee pre-run, the other half and more coffee post-run.
Workout: Ran 5.12 miles in 46 minutes, 54 seconds; average pace, 9:09. Finished off with a 20-minute session of "Tank Top Arms" with Cindy Whitmarsh.

I've been reprimanded 'bout a thousand times/ I'm a rulebreaker/ You know that I'm a rulebreaker

In kindergarten, I was assigned to draw a "house for the classroom hamster. I drew an actual house. I didn't know how to draw a cage, and I decided that it was unfair for a hamster not to live in a real house.

I guess I just liked to work outside the boundaries. Break the rules. Sort of like today.

So today's run, according to the Runner's World sub-2:00 half-marathon plan, was 5 miles with the middle three miles at half-marathon pace (9:09). The bookend miles were to be a warm-up and cool down.

I started off pretty well, clocking in the first mile at 9:46. After the first mile, I switched the Garmin display so that I saw average lap pace and not current pace. I figured it might help me stay in a good range. Yeah ... not so much. I couldn't figure out when to hold back and when to speed up. My splits ended up too fast because of this: 9:03, 9:02 and 8:53.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem doing a bit better. I was always a bit of an overachiever (in addition to breaking rules). I also am not worried because I'm throwing these speed sessions into my schedule in the event that I decide to run a fall half-marathon - not because I am registered for such a race.

HOWEVER, I know that Runner's World wrote that schedule, assigned paces, that way for a reason. I also don't know what this will do to my legs just days ahead of Rock 'n' Roll Chicago. And, I also don't know what this will do to my head ahead of the race. I might think that I can run a sub-2:00 three weeks into a 10-week plan and crash. And burn.

I have one more run this week ... 3 miles on Friday. I plan to go solo and take it painstakingly slow. Save my legs. Rest for the race.