Mile Repeats

Please note - trying any of the activities in my blog may cause serious injury..do not try this at home!
So - on my birthday I decided instead of doing a triathlon, I would do a 10k.  Perfect, way less painful and I would have enough energy to enjoy the company of the ones I love!  Unfortunately, I put so much pressure on myself that I barely made it past the 1st mile before I started to have trouble with my breathing...augh, here we go!  Needless to say, I ended up having to slow way down and ended up with the worst side cramp in history.  This, of course, sent my day into a total tail spin...don't worry, I did eventually recover.  It just took a 2 hour car ride and a long, hot bike ride.  Which brings me to my latest fete - mile repeats.  Anyone who has done these can attest, they are hard.  It doesn't really seem to matter how many you do, or how fast you're doing them...they hurt, period. A mere 3 mornings after my race, I ran times that would have crushed my goal.  In fact, if I would have ran the 6:12, 6:09, 6:07 & 5:54...and finished the last of the 10k @ 7:45 pace, I would have beat my goal.  WTF! 
There are a couple of things I took away from this lesson:
#1 - Don't race on your birthday, the risk of disappointing yourself is way too high!
#2 - Breathing right keeps you from hyperventilating and doesn't even slow you down :)
#3 - While focusing on breathing, don't forget to relax your shoulders, or you may strain a neck muscle
#4 - Remember that only I am aware of my personal goals, getting upset only confuses people.
#5 - Sweet new racing flats don't make me invincible.
#6 - Breathing exercises will not only help my training, but also help me not take out my frustrations on those around me....breathe...
..I tried to come up with 10, but they were just getting stupid...I'll leave the top 10 to Letterman.