Glass Half Empty…..

To say that today I had a great run would be a complete lie.   I was planning to run 10 miles and slowly progress to a strong finish.  All was going well until mile 4 (8:56, 8:36, 8:29, 8:25) and then I started already feeling weary. By mile 7 I was in survival – let me get home mode.  I was overheated and sweating too much.  I had 16 ounces of drinks with me but I guess I should have had more, looking back.  I was also getting delirious now – do the math on this one.  (Please, this is only relative to me) I was getting worried that I would average over 10 minutes a mile and kept on trying to see how much time I had to get under 1:30 for 10 miles.  By mile 10 I had about 11 minutes left so I knew that I would make it in time and I did.  Only later as I was sitting on the steps dripping and resting did I realize that I was off by over 10 minutes in my calculation – I had averaged under 9 minutes a mile the whole time.

Glass Half Full….

I guess that would have been it – a ‘bad’ run and I move one.  But there were other factors that I put together after the run.  I was on only 4 ½ hours of sleep since we had a long drive to the shore.  It was 80+ degrees with 88% humidity over the last 40 minutes.  No wonder I felt terrible pretty quickly!  I still managed to average under 9 minutes a mile – not what I wanted to do at all, but better than I felt.  I didn’t accomplish the progression piece either.  In the end there were a lot of positives I could take away from the run and I can move on to the next run with another new lesson learned.

Tell me about a bad run that you had…..

Trials of Miles,

Coach Nick

Nickolas Joannidis
Nickolas Joannidis
I have been running for over 35 years, having done practically every possible racing event or distance from the 100 meters through the marathon. I competed in varsity high school cross country and track at Saddle Brook High School in the mid-1980's, varsity cross country and track at Division II Pace University and finished well over 200 road races since then, including 20 marathons with a lifetime best of 3:14:50. I was the president of the Hoffmann LaRoche corporate running team for 7 years, growing the team from 25 to over 90 during his tenure. I coached many of these runners to achieve their goals, whether they were beginners or advanced. In 2011 I was an assistant coach for the Fair Lawn Recreation track team, helping the 10 to 14 year old group. I am currently personally coaching dozens of runners, from beginner levels to advanced levels and getting them to be prepared to meet their goals.

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