Yesterday I had a workout that really highlighted my progress over the past 6-9 months. It is really neat to perform a workout and look back the last time you did and see the improvement.
Yesterday I had a 4 X 1.5 mile @6:50-7:00 pace w/2 minutes rest. I was super nervous before the start of the run as in the past 4-5 weeks have not been my best but I knew I am ready to roll but phyiscally and mentally so even though I was nervous I was not going to go into the run with anything but lets just see what I have today.
I set out at a nice conservative pace 6:58 and held it for the first set. I didn't struggle so I started to gain some confidence but didn't want to empty the tank so I held the second set @ 6:58. Followed the last two @ 6:55 & 6:50.
Felt awesome, I never struggled and felt like I ran with a very relaxed stride. Phewy! I was super pleased with this effort and than I came home and looked up the last time I did workout in prep for Houston. I ran that in October 2011 - 9 months ago at @ 7:25-7:35 range. That is over a 30-35 second improvement.
Wow - I am so geeked! As it has been hard to see anything that looks like progress in the past month or two. My easy pace has been increasingly slow & slower while I struggled to hit efforts that I should not have struggled with. So finally I have some kind of effort to move me forward.
It is very exciting to see the workouts now more in the 6 minute range rather than the 7 minute range.
I have no idea at this point about where this fitness is going to take me this fall. As it will be a few more weeks before my coach is willing to define the goal for my December marathon. He wants to see how much fitness the heat & humidity is hiding and we'll go from there. Woo Hoo!!
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