Time Trial, Take 1

I’ve been anxious about this workout since I saw it on my schedule a few weeks ago. Hitting splits in a track workout isn’t too nerve-wracking, but seeing “time trial” on my plan had me feeling like a surprise race was thrown into my schedule. “Time trial”? Whoa, but I’m not ready for that!

We’re supposed to aim for half of our goal mile… minus 20s. For me, that’s 6:00/2 – 0:20 = 2:40. I’ve only run a sub-3:00 800m once, and that was during the Braves 1(.25) Mile… and it was downhill. It’s a very intimidating goal, but I understand why we need to be able to run faster than goal pace: we’re only going half the distance.

I’m a week behind the rest of the mile training group due to goal race dates, so I’ve been able to see everyone else’s TT posts. There have been posts comprising the whole spectrum: successes, disappointments, injuries, postponements, etc. All of them have only made me want to get mine done too so I can be ‘part of the group”. It’s a weird sort of FOMO.

Every Sunday, B and I have an email outlining our workout plans for the week. This week, I checked the weather too, and my heart sank a little when the ten-day forecast showed the gulf coast storms coming in Wednesday afternoon. Still, the past few times we’ve had storms forecast, they haven’t showed, and it was still four days away.

By last night, the forecast had faded into only rain, starting around 9:30pm Wednesday and carrying into Thursday morning. Maybe things will work out…

I’ve had dreams about the TT every night this week. Last night, I was the worst, though. I woke up at midnight with a jolt of adrenaline: “Alright, body! LET’S GO!.... except it’s midnight, not 4am. Calm down. Chill out. Go back to sleep.”

When I woke up for real, I was pleasantly surprised not to hear anything thunder or rain. I checked the doppler: no rain in sight. I checked the forecast: thunderstorms beginning at 6am. OK. I have time. I messaged the group that I’d be parking at the track (instead of our normal lot a mile away, for warm-up/cool-down), to facilitate a quick getaway when the storms arrived.

And then I started driving.

It's not that bad, right? 

It was pouring before I even got out of my neighborhood. It poured the entire way to the track, and I started seriously wondering if this was a good idea. Then I started thinking about how I should have gotten up and out earlier. If I’d been up at 3am, I could have finished the workout before this mess. (yeah, that actually seemed reasonable to me :P)

I met B at the track and obsessively decided to start my warm-up with a jog around the parking  lot before she even got out of her car; one minute done while she was getting her stuff together was one minute less of a warm-up I’d have to do on the track, and one minute sooner that I would finish. 

We got on the track and did an easy lap around to check things out. While the rain intensity varied during our lap, track conditions didn't. There were several inch-deep puddles and squishy fake grass mats covering lanes 1 & 2 for part of a straight-away, neither of which were going away any time soon.

In spite of everything, I felt this need to do this workout. At the same time, though, I was wondering how much the weather would affect my time. After all, I couldn't expect my coach to have a magic formula that would take my "run in sub-optimal conditions" and convert it to a pure, honest time trial result. I could do the workout, but, even if the time were "good", it wouldn't be accurate. 

B and I talked a lot about this as we continued to warm-up with laps. 

Best case scenarios: 

I have a solid performance. 

I hit my time in the rain. 

Worst case scenarios: 

I hit a 3-flat or higher and do the rest of my training thinking I can't hit the 6:00... or don't like my time so much that I try to do another trial a few days later on tired/stressed legs. 

I have a decent run, but never really know what I'm capable of.

I slip in a puddle, sprain an ankle, and can't run for the next two weeks, miss yet another mile, and potentially have to back out of Bourbon Chase. 

Is that last one a bit of a "slippery slope" argument? Yeah, probably. But, when your super-supportive training partner asks you what you'd tell a trainee who was attempting a time trial in these conditions, and your answer is "you're an idiot", you kind of have your answer.

We ended up running 4 easy miles on the track. The thunderstorm never came. I walked away from this workout feeling something I don't think I've ever felt after a workout: guilt, coupled with failure. 

I feel guilty that I didn't do the workout on my schedule. It doesn't seem to matter to me that I ran four miles in the rain. That seems completely worthless. 

I feel guilty that I didn't plan things out better. I could have done the time trial Wednesday morning instead, but chose not to. I could have looked at the weather and gotten up earlier. I could have swapped any other workout with today, since this is the ONE workout I can't possibly replicate to any extent on a treadmill.

Coach said it's not a big deal if I miss it, but I don't want to miss it. I want to do it. I want to know. <whines> Everyone ELSE got to do a time trial. I want to do one tooooo.

Here's hoping the weather clears and maybe I can swap out Sat or Sunday's run with a trial instead... or that I just "get over" this and move on with my training. 

Until then, I'll have a little more in common with my one-year old.