Cheetah Speed

Posted by | Run | 0 |

CheetahI have no idea if this is real or not, but it doesn’t actually matter. There’s a tale I’ve heard that because a Cheetah has no natural predators that can run faster than it, chasing one in a jeep is an effective way to hunt them. The reasoning being that they assume they can out run the jeep, so they just keep running faster and faster until… Well, I don’t know. Their hearts explode or something.

Either way, they run fast enough to destroy themselves.

I’ve started to feel like I have this ability too. After my wee-bit-too hard 8k, I was really sore and broken for most of the following week. And then after a long run that I pushed a bit too hard in weather that was a fair bit hotter than I’m used to, my hip started bothering me a lot. Run too hard, tear myself apart.

Thankfully, I’ve built up a team of people that are really good at putting me back together after I break myself down. But the process is still a net negative.

With that in mind, and the desire to run a lot and take very little time off and limping, I’m going to make a conscious effort to avoid going Cheetah Speed at my two upcoming road races: Sun Run (10km) and the BMO Vancouver Marathon. There’s so many other runs I want to do, no sense breaking myself if I can avoid it.

I don’t really have any goal for the Sun Run, but for BMO I was going for under 3:00. I’m not saying that’s no longer in the cards, but if it feels like I’d end up limping for weeks afterwards I’m going to slow it down.

I’ve got lots of time to run sub-3:00. No need to push it too hard and do it this spring.


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