Niki's Neverending Adventure

I had to do a quick little post to tell y’all how awesome my run was this morning! It’s one of those runs that reminds you why you run and train so hard! What can be better than that??

I woke up this morning around 6am planning on doing my long run for the week. But when I woke up, my head hurt, my nose was stuffy, and I just felt blah. I definitely didn’t want to get up and do a long run. So I quickly thought about what other day I could do my long run, rolled over, and went back to sleep for another hour. I finally pulled myself out of bed and knew I had to do some kind of run today, especially since the temp was right at 70 and that’s cooler than it’s been in a LONG time!! After I got up and stretched out a bit, I felt a little better. My sinuses are just going a little crazy! I decided 4 miles at and easy pace would be doable, and I headed out.

At the beginning of my run, my PF was killing me!! But I know once I hit the 1/2 mile mark, it usually goes away. But it was killer this morning! I felt really good by the first mile and decided to pick up my pace a bit. The second mile came and went really quickly and I picked up my pace a bit more! After seeing my mile split for my 2nd mile, I knew I could really push it and have my fastest 4 miler in a LONG time! So I did!! Each mile I pushed it a little more and I felt AMAZING!! Sinus and PF troubles were out the window by mile 1 and I just couldn’t hold my legs back!! Plus, the beautiful weather was helping so much!! I finished with a huge smile on my face and after looking at my time, yelled “YES!!”. People in my neighborhood probably think I’m crazy, but I just couldn’t hold my excitement in!! So here’s my stats:

4 miles in 38:23

Mile 1:10:17

Mile 2: 9:48

Mile 3: 9:22

Mile 4: 8:58 (!! Who knew I had that in me!!)

Avg Pace: 9:36

Holy cow people, my speed is returning to me!! Thank goodness! Speed, oh how I’ve missed you :) This run has really pumped me up for the Forrest Spence 5k on Saturday!! I think all the hills and speed work we have been doing in my running group on Monday nights have really helped bring my speed back!! So yes, I’m pumped about this and just wanted to share!!

Have you ever had a run that you though was going to be awful, and turned out wonderful?? What do you think it the most important way to get speedier?

Posted in: on Thursday, August 26, 2010 at at 11:05 AM