Slowly Getting Faster

This run started out slow but ended up fast.  Some of the slow was because I was still a bit tired and some of it was because MattVH wasn't feeling it today.  I was almost 40 seconds slower on the first mile, 1 minute 8 seconds slower on the second mile, 6 seconds slower on the third mile, and 1 minute 16 seconds slower on the fourth mile.  The fourth mile was all on me.  I just wasn't as fast up those switchbacks today, which was alright because this wasn't intended to be a fast run.  My plan when I woke up this morning was just try and get the hills in and don't slow down too much.  So I guess this was on track. 

I reached the peak in 48 minutes and 38 seconds, which is 2 minutes and 20 seconds slower than yesterday.  But when I got up there and realized I was only 2 minutes off my time yesterday I wondered if I could push the rest of the way and get back around the same time.  Turns out I could.  Mile 5 today was 26 seconds faster than yesterday, mile 6 was 1 minute 17 seconds faster than yesterday, and mile 7 was 33 seconds faster than yesterday.  I got back to the start in 1:21:34, which was only 36 seconds slower than yesterdays time after starting out with more than a 2 minute deficit.  Not too shabby.  

I realized yesterday that there were a few places on the second half that I was slower than I needed to be and I think that is where I made up the difference.  Instead of slowing down at the bottom of the trail I pushed up to the BST connector.  Instead of slowing down once I hit the grass at the pond I pushed the pace.  I think there were a few places that with a little more mental discipline I could push harder and get another 30 seconds or a minute at my current fitness level.  If I had been as fast going up today as I was yesterday I would have taken almost 2 minutes off my PR.  I'm a bit more optimistic about my ability to get my time down to 1:05 after today.