I ran by myself this morning. My group is running tomorrow instead, so I was on my own, just me, Mr. Garmin, and iPod. I made it to the turnaround point (6 miles) in 59:57. I think I even got the runner's high on the way. :-) Haven't felt that in a long time! Soooo, I turned around, planning to pick it up a bit. I was cruising along at about 9:45, stopped for Gatorade, and saw two men pass me. They looked pretty hardcore, with their fuel belts and all. I started running again and found myself right with them, doing 9:15-9:30, and I decided to keep up the pace with them. Then, one of the guys and I almost got hit by a car (not as bad as it sounds). I found out he was doing 10, and it would be his farthest run ever! He's training for PF Chang's in January. So, appearances aren't everything!
When I hit 9 miles, I decided to really pick it up, and I just kept it going, faster and faster. Turns out, I ran the second half over 4 minutes faster than the first half!! Yeah! My splits were: 10:00, 10:10, 10:07, 10:00, 9:48, 9:52, 9:39, 9:29, 9:37, 9:16, 9:11, 8:43. I feel really good now.
When I looked in the mirror, I had 2 bugs stuck to my face-ew! I ran through a couple of swarms of bugs, closed my mouth, and held my breath! Luckily I didn't swallow any bugs-I have done that before!
I'm feeling a lot stronger. The question now is: do I (a) start increasing my weekday mileage next week, (2) increase the pace slightly, (3) do both, or (4) keep doing what I'm doing? I have a half marathon coming up on November 11. One caveat: next weekend I will be in Flagstaff, at high altitude. I'm not sure I will be able to complete over 10 miles at that altitude. Any advice regarding the next step in my training would be appreciated. |