Planted Seeds

I went into last week a little wary.  It was a new week of new workouts..longer intervals, tempo runs, and a 75 minute long run.  I was armed with lap times, doing MUCH better with pacing, but the idea of the new runs (and a really fricking long one) made me doubt myself a little.  Until I was given a heads up that the FOLLOWING week, I should be prepared to do a five mile long run.  WHAT?  Are you kidding me???  I can't run five miles!  I'm still working on consistently having the four mile under an hour!  But, the seed of five miles was planted anyway....

So, I headed to long intervals (2/3 mile, 1/3 mile recovery) and was able to complete them well, setting a 3 mile PR in the process.  Excited by my success, I looked forward to the longer steady state run of 3 miles (new distance) and was able to complete that one with success too!  My first tempo run (run at race pace) was a little daunting but I was able to come in with a little faster lap times than I was aiming for.  I was looking forward to the steady state run (2 1/2 miles) the next day and went out (as usual) a little too fast.  But, I was fine with the speed so I kept it up and was able to run my 2 1/2 at very slightly slower than the tempo speed goal from the day before.  I was ecstatic by my run but tempered the excitement with a few nerves because I knew that I was blowing my goals out of the water (meaning newer, harder goals were coming.....) and because I was a little worried that I had gone too fast and really had done a tempo run instead of really doing the steady state I was supposed to be doing.  As for the next day, my intervals turned into a steady state run (a real one) so that I would be refreshed for the long run on Wednesday.

Wednesday dawned happy and well and I was excited to get started with my long run, but had a few things to do around the house.  While I was cleaning and straightening, that seed (the 5 mile one) took root and grew in my head.  I looked at the lap/pace time chart on the fridge and realized that I could probably aim for the five miles this week.  So, I thought I would give it a try and no being disappointed if I missed it.  So, I played a math game during my run to keep me occupied over my insane number of laps.  Instead of really paying attention to what was going on with my lap time, I played an over/under game seeing if I could stay under the 15:00 pace needed to hit 5 miles in 75 minutes.  After a couple of miles, it was intensely clear that it wouldn't be a problem to keep that up.  And that run turned into the BEST RUN EVER, as I shattered four PRs in that run (total time run, total continuous distance, four miles, and five miles).  Yes...you read that right, not only did I hit 5 miles, I ran for a total of 5.33!!  And each subsequent mile was FASTER than the mile before it, which rarely, if ever, happens during my long runs.  It started with the first mile just under 15:00 at 14:57 and finished with a 13:40.  WOW!  Because of the nature of my lap timing on my HRM, I don't actually see these numbers until they are in my spreadsheet, so I was even surprised by myself!

Good news from all this?  Look at all those amazing PRs!!  I surprised myself and am going to have all sorts of new lap times to hit by the end of the month!!

Bad news?  I injured my left leg.  I took Thursday off and went back at intervals on Friday but couldn't get them all completed because of the pain in my leg.  I tried to push through it (set a one mile PR in the process), but ended up having to take the entire weekend off as a result.  Hopefully, I'll be better and good and ready to go by this weekend!