9.6 miles with my running group at 6:30am. Weather=45F. Average pace=8:15/m. Great run today! Ashley called me last night and convinced me to go. I've been really struggling with motivation lately. Getting hurt and ditching my 3:25 marathon plans that I'd been training for since July was a big blow... Then I had a hectic Christmas season and I've been dealing with the decision of whether or not to return to work (after much, much consideration we decided that I'll stay home with the boys another year). So when my alarm went off this morning, I almost opted to sleep in instead. I'm glad I got up. I thought it'd be smart if I ran with the 9:00 pace group... but I'm not smart. That's why I got hurt in the first place. But at least I didn't run with my normal group who were going 7:45ish... actually, I couldn't have even if I wanted to. I ended up running with a couple guys named Clint and Ramon and we were pretty consistently 8:10-8:20 the whole way. They are pretty funny so it was really entertaining. Ramon just found out that his fiancé is pregnant with their first child. Clint and I were the first people he told! Pretty cool! I would say that the effort felt like 7:45 pace did to me in October. I could still talk but it wasn't easy... however, I didn't think I was going to die so it was still good. It seems I'm 30-45 seconds off what I used to be... which is actually a hell of a lot better than I thought I'd be. I'm really surprised I did almost 10 miles at this speed considering I haven't run more than 6 miles since November. Best part was that I didn't have any issues or pain. Woo Hoo! It's so nice to run without pain! Afterwards, of course, I feel like I ran about 15 miles instead of 10. My chest is really tight and I bet my legs will be sore tomorrow. I'm feeling much more motivated to keep this up. I love running with my group on Saturdays! Oh, and I signed up for NYC Marathon last night! On a side note, I'd like to thank all my friends on this blog who have been so encouraging to me these last several weeks while I've been in a funk! I love this blog!!! | 