276.5-280.5: Falling Short on Speed-work

Today's schedule called for 2 x 1 mile repeats at a 8:25/mile pace with a warm up and a cool-down mile.

But before I go into how that went down, I'm sending a shout out to my dad on his birthday.

Off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico on a dive boat, December 2005

Mike Macauley, you are everything a daughter could hope for in a father and then some. We've had so many adventures together and I'm looking forward to so many more. You've taught me that while planning has its place, so much of this life is how you live it each day and taking each moment in whatever form it may come.

While you are healthy in the general sense, you've had more than your fair share of hospitalizations for illnesses, injuries, and complications that run the gamut. Even still, you've held on to your belief that the world is for seeing and home is being with people you love.

Wishing a very happy birthday to you from many miles away.

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My father and I have never ran together but, as a swimmer, he knows the meditative pull it has with me. I imagine that his mind wanders similarly during his many laps.

Speed-work has a meditative quality to it as well, but it takes a very different form. Intent focus on breath and form is necessary to achieve your set goals. And when your breath is all over the place because you didn't hydrate properly and your form is weak because you are sore, it's easy to not hit your marks.

See that lovely plateau roughly between miles 1-2? Should have had another one:

On the plus side, this was my first attempt at mile-repeats not on a treadmill and that I even managed to maintain a relatively steady, faster pace (not nearly fast enough) for one mile makes me happy. But it's frustrating knowing that if I were on a treadmill, I could have banged out the 2 x 1 at 8:25/mile. It would have been tough, and I would have been dying, but I would have done it.

Then again, when faced with the prospect of flying off the back of the treadmill, I don't really have a choice, do I?

Maybe I'll take myself to a track next go round.