78 and Counting

January 27, 2013: 78 and Counting…..  4-mile warm-up; 10 miles at marathon goal pace (56:25); 3-mile cool down (17 total miles).   I do this tempo run around a lake in my neighborhood.  One loop around the lake is 1.33 miles.  One side of the lake is mostly flat, while the other side is rolling.  There are also 2 short, nasty hills at each end of the lake…..just enough to slow you down and put you in a little bit of oxygen debt.  What’s nice about the loop is that I can set cups of water out in front of my house, then throw the empty cups into my in-law’s yard just down the street.  Of course I pick them up and throw them away once I’m finished.  I also take a gel a little over the 5 mile mark, just like I would in the marathon.  I try to simulate the marathon as much as possible (of course I wouldn’t warm-up 4 miles before a marathon, nor cool down three miles, but at this point in my training I want to keep my mileage up).   

I was extremely pleased with the way this tempo played out.  One of the main themes of the ‘Facing the Giants’ movie was this:  “If we win, we are going to praise God!.....If we lose…. we are going to praise God!”  Well, today’s workout was a win!.....and I want to praise God.  Going into this workout, I wanted to average around 5:40 pace or even slightly faster.   The first mile was 5:50.  I was a little disappointed b/c I did this run exactly two weeks ago, and my first mile was 5:38 (and went on to finish in 56:30).  My first thought after the mile was, ‘I may not average 5:40, but let’s try to keep the miles under 5:50.’  I reasoned that maybe my legs were a little more fatigued today b/c just two days ago I ran 11 miles at a pretty decent effort, while 2 weeks ago I did two 8 mile recovery runs preceding this workout.  Well, to my surprise, the next mile was 5:38.  I proceeded to stay in the 5:34-5:39 range the rest of the way, and ended up averaging 5:38 for the entire run.  It would be a dream of mine to average this on race day.  However, it is something that I want to totally surrender to God.  Putting pressure on myself to run a certain time usually does not bode well.  It reminds me of this scripture: “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the LORD.” (Psalm 21:31).  I know it’s my job to prepare to the best of my ability, but the results are in God’s hands.  God willing, when I toe the starting line (well, possibly several meters behind the starting line. :-P),  I want to totally give myself and the race to Him.  Only He knows what the conditions will even be like.  I would love for it to be about 45-50 degrees with no wind or a tail wind.  It could be 30 degrees with a headwind or even a sweltering 80 degrees.  I can control none of that.  All I can do is be ready to give God my best on that day, and let Him take care of the rest.