It was a beautiful crisp morning. As much as I HATE/despise/loathe/detest the thought of summer coming to an end, running is the absolute best on a morning like this. When the air is damp, there is a slight dew on the ground, and you start off with just the slightest of chills. A thing of beauty!
I decided for these timed runs that there would be no watch stopping. This would be a race situation. If I need to stop or walk, the clock will keep ticking. I also was approaching this as a race situation. There would be no wiggle room left so that I could allow for improvement at the end of the month. I was going all out with a best effort. If I can't improve by the end of the month then I can't improve, but I didn't want to fool myself into thinking there was improvement, so it was all or nothing.
Gotta say ... I kinda shocked myself. It was an INCREDIBLE run. I have not had a run like this in quite some time.
My initial time for the Cardio Challenge
for 5K was 26:32 - 8:34 pace
I have not hit that pace over ANY distance yet this year. In fact, I have not hit better than that pace on a straight through run (i.e. no watch stopping) since October last year.
I am SOOOO happy!
Of course this will make it a little harder to get the amount of improvement I set out. I had wanted to improve this time by 1 minute by the end of the month. That would put me at 25:32. My PR over this distance is 24:53. Can't say I have a ton of confidence, but I'm going to give it my all and try. When I decided upon that 1 minute improvement goal I figured it would take me somewhere between 28-29 minutes. I figured my "improved" time would be 27 or better. So yeah, I'm a little shocked, but very, VERY happy!
This weekend I'll be setting my 10K time.
I want to send out best wishes to my blogging buddy MARCELLE who is running her VERY first half marathon this weekend, and I believe just her 2nd race ever. AWESOME! She is going to smoke it and I'm so proud of her. Good luck Marcelle!
Heidi
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