What an absolutely gorgeous day! Too bad I had to run in my dreary basement...
Still, I managed to get in a good workout and I'm thrilled with where I am physically right now. My training schedule called for 4 miles and I decided to try something a little different. One thing I've loved about training on the treadmill (and there aren't many times you'll see the words 'treadmill' and 'love' anywhere near one another in this blog) is that I can force myself to increase my speed throughout my run. For most people, as you get tired, you tend to slow down. Even if the excitement of finishing causes someone to pick up their pace at the end, it is usually the miles in the middle that are run at a slower pace. A treadmill eliminates that issue altogether. As I've mentioned before, it is always my goal to increase my speed as I go and never to decrease it along the way. This forces me to learn how to pace myself properly and, because I like to push myself at the end, if I have the energy left to do it, I rarely keep my pace: I always increase the speed over the course of the last mile. Today was similar, but with an added twist.
For the most part, I start somewhere between 6 and 6.5 mph. After the first mile, I increase it a few tenths and, the last mile I try to increase the speed every tenth of a mile so that I'm sprinting the last .1 or .2 miles. (Because, even though I haven't yet learned how to run 26 miles, God knows I'm going to be prepared to give it my all for that last .2!)
Anyway, today I started at 6.5, moved up to 6.6 for mile 2 and up to 6.7 for mile 3. My total time for the first three miles was 28:10. My goal, however, was to see how fast I could run my last mile after finishing the first 3. I was quite thrilled to run it in 8:04. This is certainly not the fastest mile I've ever run, but to be able to run that time after having already run 3 miles was pretty exciting.
Getting philosophical for a moment, I have to admit that I was far more excited about what this meant for me mentally rather than physically. It was one of those reminders that sometimes there's a little more left to give, even when I'm not certain that's the case. This, I'm guessing, will end up coming in quite handy as I continue to add to my ever growing list of commitments.
These days I feel like I'm setting a new goal for myself every week. Hopefully I will know when I've reached my limit. Until then, I guess I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that today's life lesson is used wisely and that, when I need a little something extra to get through my day, hopefully I can find the energy I need. I find I was pretty boring when I didn't have any goals... and I'm liking the new me.
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