Righteous Run!

I got a grand total of ONE run last week. Two big miles, which became my total for the run, the day, the week, the month, and the year-to-date. I'm just happy it wasn't a big, fat zero for January. Today I hit the track again (and hope to get 3-4 total runs in of 2 miles apiece this week). Probably only Adam and Matthew will care about the splits, but I've gotta brag a little. Last week I ran my first mile in 7:48, but I ran my first lap at 1:51 and got slower every lap. Then I had to kick in the last lap at 1:35 (that's 6:20 mile pace, and the last 200 meters was sub-6) just to edge under 8 minutes for the second mile. I felt like crud.

Today was different. My goal was just to be consistent, to start slow and stay steady. Lap 1 felt under control. Split-1:54. Although not much slower than the first lap last week, it felt a lot less labored. Lap 2, 1:55. Lap 3, 1:55, and lap 4, a steady 1:54. That's 7:40 (counting all the decimals) for the first mile, faster than last week, but it felt far better. After a 1:57 5th lap, I felt like stretching it out. Lap 6, 1:52. Lap 7, 1:46 (hey, that's 7:04 pace, and I'm breathing hard, but not dying!). Lap 8 was a steady but not out of control kick at 1:36, for a 2nd mile total of 7:12. I would have bet that I couldn't run a single mile at 7:12! Total time for 2 miles = 14:52. The dip under 15 minutes was unexpected and very, very cool.

Not to get too excited yet--if I had to run another mile, I couldn't have done it (although I probably could do 3 if I ran it at 8:30-9:00 a mile). And my track distance kids did an "easy" run of 50 minutes today that covered 7-ish miles (and there was a time I could have run with that group, or just behind). But I feel a lot more like a real runner than a slacker compared to last week. Give it a month or so. I'm coming back!