5 miles in 35:58 on the treadmill. Not sure where that came from but damned if it didn’t feel good!

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So I was feeling very good today – pretty much completely done with the junk with my system that dragged me down for about the last 3 weeks.

I had a good solid outdoor run on Saturday and took it easy on Sunday for my birthday and didn’t run on Monday. I knew going into this run that I should be strong and healthy and that I would need to push and try to find where I am at speed wise.

But I also knew I didn’t want to hurt myself with less than 2 weeks until my next race. With that in mind I started out doing a minute at 7.2 mph and it felt surprisingly easy and comfortable. Did another minute at 7.5 mph and that felt good too. So I did a jump to 9 mph and that was too big a jump too quickly and I backed off after about 20 seconds or so to 8 mph. After several minutes at that speed I figured I was comfortable and oxygenated and tried to hit 9 mph again…and I was able to stick out a minute! Whoohoo! Haven’t been able to do that in a while! So from there on out I did a minute at 8, a minute at 9, another minute at 8 and then 2 at 9. I would then repeat those cycles. It was hard but I kept at that until the half hour mark hitting just under 4.2 miles.

I then walked for a minute and then got back at it. A minute at 9 mph, a minute at 8, 2 minutes at 9 and then slowly bumped the speed until I got to a max of 9.5 that I held onto for the last 30 seconds of the run.

I am quite stunned that the run went so well. It is certainly the confidence booster I needed after being shut down for 3 weeks. Damn I’m glad to be back!

I don’t know why this run went so well though – probably a combination of factors including needing to prove something to myself. But I suspect the single biggest factor was that I was rested, or at least my legs weren’t overworked. Think of it as a 3 week taper?


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