It rained most of the night but by 8:00am it had stopped, so I went out under gray skies, about 45 degrees, for a 7.5 mile run. Was planning to run it at a moderate pace, but I was feeling good so at various points during the run I would do threshold pickups which lasted from 800meters to 1 mile. The last 1.5 miles my lungs and legs were under control so I pushed as if it were the final segment of a race. This was one of my best runs since the marathon. I should mention that after the marathon at the end of July I was feeling so beat up that I didn't run for 6 weeks. When I started running again in mid September my body was feeling great but I had lost a lot of fitness. Most of my runs since then have been short and slow, from 3-5 miles. These past 2 weeks I have finally seen an improvement in my fitness, and I have been picking up the speed. I ran a 10K last weekend, my first race since the marathon, in 44:20, which is about right for where I am fitness-wise. I kept thinking during the race that I was going to slow down and crash, because I hadn't trained long or hard enough. I am planning to work my long runs up to about 12 miles. I don't think I want to go further than that, I remember how dead my legs were from 20 milers, and I was always walking around with a sore heel and mashed-potato quads. I don't see the point in that, I must have a body which is sensitive to runs over 2 hours. I am planning on racing Da Deer Run in early December, a 5 mile cross country slog near Bloomington. My time won't be great, but it feels awesome to be training again. After the 7.5 miler today I did 4 sets of pull-ups, dips, push-ups, crunches, and calf raises, then 40 minute walk home.
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