Today, I was scheduled to do 5.0 miles in my “easy” pace range, after yesterday’s great Tempo and more workout. Yet really, I found today’s workout in many ways more difficult to get done than that hard-ass workout.

I definitely would have preferred to have sat in the new chair with Bennie than gone out and run on the treadmill this morning.

What in the hell are you talking about Harold?

Yesterday, you did 6.0 miles of tempo running at half marathon race pace and then added 8 x .1 strides at fast speeds for a total of 10.0 miles and you are telling us that today’s 5.0 miles at within your easy pace range was a harder run.

You really are knackered, aren’t you!

Let’s get real, I knew that I had to get up for the Tempo workout and that I would be pushing myself pretty close to my limits at this point in my training. So I was ready for the challenges before and during the run.

Today, I knew without a doubt that I could do 5.0 miles in that pace range without all that many problems physically and while my body was a bit tired, once I got through procrastinating starting, it responded quite well.

No, it really was the mental part of the run that was the toughest part. I new that I had to run to stay with the plan, but my head just wasn’t into doing 5.0 miles and having to them on the treadmill again, was well not where I wanted to be at all during the run. There were several points, where I seriously thought about going and lifting weights (something I really dislike), but didn’t.

Yes, eventually I did finish those 5.0 miles and went and beat up the body on the foam roller for a while. This is where sticking to a plan in the past was my downfall. To be honest, I either would have bagged the workout at around 3.0 miles or increased the pace significantly to simply get it over with. Which would have defeated the purpose of this workout – to recover from yesterday’s hard workout.

So for me , it was a tougher workout today and even thought I wasn’t crazy about doing it, I got it done.

Sometimes those are the workouts that need to get done, the routine ones that are not really all that challenging, but do add to your mileage base and levels of fitness.

The good news is that that runner who asked me to help him run faster was there today and I gave him my copy of Faster After 50 and loaned him my Lydiards Masters Running book. So I hope they help him meet his goals and I look forward to running a few times this spring outside with him.

Not a great workout by any means, but it is in the running log and now I get to look forward to 6.0 easy tomorrow and 13 on Sunday. I just hope that I get to run them outside, the treadmill is a great tool, but at this point of the winter, I need to get my ass outside a LOT more.