^%$@
Last night was the first session of my Cap 10K training group, and I have to say I'm not thrilled.
First, the good: Everyone seems really nice and laid back, including the coaches. It was nice to run on Town Lake, especially the west side, where I rarely go. Running with a group wasn't particularly annoying (although I did notice near the end that most people were running two abreast and chatting with their neighbor, while I was cruising along in my own little silent world. Habit, I guess). The pace was a little slower than I'd normally run, but I prefer that to it being too fast.
But ... we took walk breaks. For this particular run, every four minutes. I'd been assuming, based on the schedule from last year (because they haven't bothered to put this year's schedule on their web site yet) that only the novice group - people who aren't yet running at all - would be taking walk breaks. But this year, they also have the beginners (people already running around 10 miles a week) taking walk breaks. The run portions get longer each week, but they only ever reach 10 minutes.
[commence the whine portion of this post]
I don't WANT to take walk breaks. I worked really HARD to phase those out. I want to RUN the 10K, NOT walk/run it. I know I can do it, IF I train right. How am I supposed to RUN 6 miles if I've been taking walk breaks for my long runs?!
[end whining]
I don't really have anyone to blame but myself. I shouldn't have assumed the schedule would be the same as last year's (although, except for the walking, it's nearly identical). And maybe I'll end up being grateful for those walk breaks when we start getting up to 4 or 5 miles. But for now, I'm kind of pissed.
First, the good: Everyone seems really nice and laid back, including the coaches. It was nice to run on Town Lake, especially the west side, where I rarely go. Running with a group wasn't particularly annoying (although I did notice near the end that most people were running two abreast and chatting with their neighbor, while I was cruising along in my own little silent world. Habit, I guess). The pace was a little slower than I'd normally run, but I prefer that to it being too fast.
But ... we took walk breaks. For this particular run, every four minutes. I'd been assuming, based on the schedule from last year (because they haven't bothered to put this year's schedule on their web site yet) that only the novice group - people who aren't yet running at all - would be taking walk breaks. But this year, they also have the beginners (people already running around 10 miles a week) taking walk breaks. The run portions get longer each week, but they only ever reach 10 minutes.
[commence the whine portion of this post]
I don't WANT to take walk breaks. I worked really HARD to phase those out. I want to RUN the 10K, NOT walk/run it. I know I can do it, IF I train right. How am I supposed to RUN 6 miles if I've been taking walk breaks for my long runs?!
[end whining]
I don't really have anyone to blame but myself. I shouldn't have assumed the schedule would be the same as last year's (although, except for the walking, it's nearly identical). And maybe I'll end up being grateful for those walk breaks when we start getting up to 4 or 5 miles. But for now, I'm kind of pissed.