Famous Vincent Van Gogh quote

 Well, it’s been an interesting month of speed drills and sore hips (yes, both of them). I’ve broken my 5k PR a few times (maybe 4X?). Then Saturday’s run left an unexpectedly deeper, lasting impression. Within a few steps after starting my run, I was “Garmin blind”: when your Garmin timekeeper watch switches from the elapsed time/distance setting to the “you are ahead by X minutes/x miles” compared to your designated pace setting. Usually I can clear it by holding and clicking on the bezel at 6:00 but not with gloves on (it was cold & brisk, I needed the gloves). My jacket sleeve must have brushed my watch and switched the setting. Oh well. No stopping to fix that when running 5:30/mile pace. While accelerating and running downhill at top speed within the first mile of my run (Garmin sez 4:12/mile but I’m guessing it was closer to 4:20-4:30 mile pace for a stretch going downhill), I suddenly lost my footing and fell, chipping my shoulder (yes, I knocked that chip off my shoulder!) and banging my hip & elbow on the pavement. My feet didn’t realize how fast I was going-too much velocity! Glad I was wearing full running-suit armor (UnderArmour joke-’twas wearing an UnderArmour jacket). At first, I wanted to give up. Nothing felt broken (thank goodness I rolled out of the fall, that took some of the pressure off of my hip & shoulder-my iphone also cushioned some of the blow since I landed hard on the left). But I quickly realized that I was running at PR pace and although I had lost a few precious seconds, I still had a chance to chip away at my 5k time. Suddenly I had an intense desire to finish the run despite the calamitous fall. So I brushed myself off, shook off the fall, and flew. The first mile was the fastest one (despite the fall). Closing in on the 5k point, someone calls me on my phone (NOT NOW!), I declined the call so I could see Runkeeper on my phone.  Still Garmin blind at that point so Runkeeper was the only sensor working that I could see. Success! 22:42, new PR by 11 seconds. Splits were 7:03/7:32/7:25. Finally I hit my goal of 7:21 splits for full 5k for month. Whew!

   Tried to run fast again yesterday, things were going great until I suddenly kicked up an invisible long sharp tree branch with one foot, causing the branch to careen into my other calf, scraping me. The tree branch was concealed by leaves. My pace slackened, couldn’t keep the speed up, so I turned it into a fartlek workout. Branches aren’t supposed to be underneath leaves–only leaves and grass, right? 

   Perhaps my month o’ speed is o’er. Colder, rainy weather coming. Is this what injured reserve feels like?  Plus it felt so good to slow the race pace to slow running yesterday. Need more long, slow running. Short, fast runs now seem dangerous. 

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