Life of an Age-Grouper

Text message conversation with Matt Me : Great day to crush a run test Matt : Hell yeah. Beautiful out there. Remember, run relaxed, it's about smooth speed not muscling through it. Me : Noted and filed Me : Smooth speed, I like that Matt: It's just like swimming, the more you fight the slower you go and more energy you use.  Have cue words like "quick feet", "smooth speed", etc. Relax and run!! And just like that I had my new running mantra, "smooth speed". I thought about this mantra all day long while at work.  I freaking love it.  After work I started my trek back to Huntington from Brooklyn thinking about and saying numerous times, "smooth speed". I'm not the type of athlete that can just show up and race.  I need time to mentally prepare for the race or in this case a run test.  The more prepared I am mentally the better success I usually have.  My mental preparations include; visualizing the race from start to fi...

37 degrees, pitch dark, 2 pairs of tights, multiple top layers, balaclava, headlamp, the track, shitty swim messing with my game . . . . sounds like perfect conditions for a 3 mile run test! Heading to the track I didn't even bother to check Test #1 results because there was no way I was going to come close to that time.  I felt like I hadn't run in forever, that shitty swim from two nights ago was messing with my mental game, needless to say my expectations weren't the highest.  I figured that I should at least have a goal so I picked the number 7:20.  Why did I pick or even think I could average a 7:20 mile? I have no idea. I looked down at my watch when I was about 3/4's of the way done with my first lap and my watch said 5:40.  5:40? What was that suppose to mean? Was it telling me the time? Had I been running for 5 minutes already?  Did I mess up the settings?  Nope. I was running at a 5:40 pace. SHIT.  Not only did I have a horrible swim but ...