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March 20, 2005
rapid run
When Friday rolled around, I realized that if didn’t do anything athletic that day, that would make for three straight. I couldn’t in my right mind let that happen. So I decided that I was going to go running after work. And since I hadn’t ran by myself for over a month, I thought that it would be a good chance to really push it and see what I’m capable of.
By the time I got home, I had a route picked out that Mike, Anika and I had run a couple weeks earlier. I remember it being around four and half miles, which seemed like a good distance.
Whenever I set out to do a hard run, I’ll set a goal for myself and use that to really push it at the end. My goal for this run was to average 7:00 minute miles. I figured that the run should take me about 31 or 32 minutes to complete. I was in for a surprise.
I started out really strong, I felt like I was running under a 7:00 mpm pace. I wasn’t sure how long I could keep it up, but I decided to keep the throttle nailed and see how long I could sustain that pace. Even though I didn’t have any real feedback during the run to tell me if I was succeeding, I felt like I was able to really hold that pace for the entire run. I was even able to find some extra energy at the end to finish with a strong kick.
As I crossed the stop sign by my house I glanced down at my watch and saw the numbers ’27:40’ across the screen. Oh my gosh, you have got to be kidding me. There’s no way I ran that fast. That absolutely rocks! Then a little bit out doubt started to creep in. Surely I must have been off on my distance estimates. I’ll need to check this out.
After I cooled down and stretched out, I hopped in my car to drive the route I just ran. As the odometer rolled on, I started to feel more assured in my previous estimates. When I crossed the same stop sign at the end, my odo had just registered 4.4 miles…a 6:20 mpm pace! Holy crap, I’ve never run that fast for that kind of distance. I think it’s pretty safe to say that I’m in the best shape of my life right now, and I still think I can go faster.
Posted by ksmith at March 20, 2005 04:32 PM