Believe to Achieve

READ ON to get to the BEST PART : D.  Okay....so not having run any speedwork since before the SGM, I have been feeling down and depressed about my fitness.  Actually just down and depressed.  Taking a supplement with DHEA, since I am very low in it.  Started to take it last night, a very low dose.  I am very leary of taking any medications but this one seems just as important as iron.   Anyway, moving forward....I got out of bed already having premeditated the possibility of running a three mile "time trial" on the track.  Too dark to run down the Provo Canyon on the marked path.   Not sure how I was going to feel with my foot in repair but I just went out and warmed up and ran to the track, just going through the motions to see if I could "force" myself to do speedwork FINALLY.  I ran 4.16 miles warmup @ 8:34 pace.  I ran the last of the warmup doing two laps around the track, clockwise then counter clockwise to check wind resistance.  On my warmup I  could feel the wind blowing at me to the south from the north.  I knew that on the track, that lies north to south,  I could face some problems.  If I had my choice I would have run  clockwise but I bumped into a guy in the dark doing lap repeats counter clockwise (the usual way people run on a track).  Because of the building there wasn't much tailwind when running south but when you ran north there was a good headwind for the long stretch but vanished at the turn.  Oh well.   I had no idea how well I would run anyway, so I didn't look at my watch but pressed lap button every 1/4 mile.  Just before I started, I realized  that I knew the gentleman running his laps.  He is a Stake leader in my stake and is in his fifties.  He quickly said before he started on one of his laps (he knows I am a "fast" runner) that  I would "chick" him.  Before I could tell him how out of shape I was, he was off.  It was still quite dark but I found this to be good because I felt like I was dreaming about my run, not actually running.  All the laps felt REALLY controlled.  Only the forth lap felt taxed as Brother Hobson decided to jump in with me and test himself I guess.  It kind of panicked me and my breathing went askew  for a minute there but  I managed my second fastest lap there.  I really have track anxiety and race anxiety.   I don't like to be challenged unless it my 80 year old grandma!!  I think Bro. Hobson wondered when the heck  I was ending my speedwork as  I continued on for 12 laps.  He was gone by the time I finished.  The cooldown was awesome.   I felt so light and my lungs were wide open feeling so refreshed.  I could have kept going in the cooldown but had to get back to my daughter for school.  Got back at 7:27am.  Ran 1.94 mile cooldown in 8:09 AP back to my house through all the construction once more.    Although my PF is slightly trying to show its ugly face  I have found that wearing support shoes all day has helped tons along with icing and stretching.  I threw out my shoes that contributed to my problem. They were my work shoes that I have had for four years-- rubber and no traction and no support.  Oh yah here are my splits (in the dark, no peeking EVER)--  1:34, 1:36, 1:38, 1:35, 1:40, 1:41, 1:38, 1:40, 1:40, 1:40, 1:40, 1:38  which equals= 19:44 for the time trial.  I got to learn to HUG the edge as my garmin had the distance at 3.08!!!!!  Almost a 5K.  Geez.  So if I were in a race it is safe to say that I would have been under 20 minutes!!  Also the fact that this did NOT feel all out is encouraging.  Very controlled.   I really thought my time was over 20 minutes.  So happy with the results.   It appears I haven't lost too much fitness with over three weeks off.    BTW MY ARMS WERE QUITE SORE THE ENTIRE RUN (from 60 pushups yesterday etc..), so with that in mind  I feel even better about this run!!!