I ran the water tank hills solo at noon today. I pushed with a pretty steady effort the whole run. The water tank hills themselves start a little over a mile into the run and climb about 600 feet in about 1.5 miles. My rules of thumb for a good effort run are 1) under 30 min from home to the top of the hills, and 2) around 17 minutes up the hills (PR is 15:05). Today's times were around 1) 28:30 and 2) 17:20. I ran the last gradual downhill mile in 7:26. For this time of the year I feel good about the effort and results. My left Achilles is feeling pretty good, but it's still warning me not to overdo it. Sometimes I find myself longing to be able to push as hard as I want to, with my willpower being my only limitation instead of this old "injury waiting to happen" body. But most of the time I'm just grateful to be able to be running as well as I am, or even running at all. What a great blessing running has been and continues to be in my life.
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