I've been feeling rejuvenated after Saturday's 18 miler which, if you think about it, is an insane thing to say. I never thought anything would feel good after running 18 straight miles in a row but golly, here I am.
It's still on the hot side in my little corner of the globe but thankfully the humidity has taken a vacation for the last few days. In order to prove to myself that I still have something resembling "speed", I decided to run a fartlek this afternoon. I haven't done much speed work in my training, and none at all in the past few weeks. Getting the miles in at all has been difficult enough without running them hard. Today's only rule was that there were no rules. I ran hard when I felt like it, and easy when I didn't. I ended up doing close to 1/2 mile repeats with the pace being close to 9:15mpm.
I was feeling so good and determined by the end of my run that I decided to run the last mile "all out." Stupid? Probably but my pace has been so slow lately I felt the need to prove to myself that I could still run "fast". Lo and behold, my last mile clocked in at 8:13. Still not setting any land speed records but that's pretty good for me. Don't get me wrong, I still got passed during this mile by some guy who looked like he was out for a Sunday jog pushing his kid in a stroller, but I was still pretty daggon pleased with that time.
As I type this afterwards, I'm spent. I couldn't ever imagine running 26.2 miles at an 8:13 pace. But then again, I never thought I'd say I feel rejuvenated after an 18 mile run either.
Life's funny like that!
7 comments:
Kate, Great job on the run today. It sounds to me that this was a perfect run. You went out and did what you wanted, and yu went back home feeling good about it. In my book that makes for a very successfull run.
Kate - just days ago you were wondering how to get the miles in this week. YOU ROCK!! I'm so excited that you reached this place in your training. There is hope, there is a God! Hee hee
Thanks so much for being so nice and always having a comment and support for me. It is helping a ton while I get through this crappy time! Some day I will fartlek too!!
Your training is paying huge dividends Kate.
Keep pressing toward the finish line!
gaj
Those fast repeats are awesome. You feel so fast afterwards, which you don't feel so much after the long runs. Great milestone to reach too by feeling that good after your long run. Keep it up. You're doing great!
I don't think I could run a 8:13 minute mile without loosing a lung, specially after doing fartleks! Awesome!
You do your fellow runners proud Kate! Thanks for sharing your journey with all of us. I can't wait to see where you head next... Like nancy said, "YOU ROCK!"
Kate, how many people can talk about being rejuvenated? That's great! So glad your training is coming together.
When conditioning comes together and we find ourselves with more endurance and getting faster, it's amazing. YOu might surprise yourself and be able to hold a faster pace for 26.2 than you think.
Keep up the great training!
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