Signs of Growth

Given that our "A" tri of the season, RattleSnake, is in two weeks, this past week has been our last hard week of training before gradually tapering down (NOT QUITTING, self) over the next two weeks.

Well, one thing I wanted to do was get in one last long run. So I did this morning. I sacrificed an off day at work today to help out in coverage. I did on two conditions - one, the shift would be short and two, it would be later in the morning. So, I covered from 8:15a-12:45p.

This meant that I woke up at 5 (an hour beyond planned) to go run at 6 (15 minutes later than planned) so I had enough time to get back, shower, change and get to work.

So, on an unusually humid Colorado summer morning that was still nice and cool (mid-60s), I put in what turned out to be 8.2 miles. I checked my watch at two points on the run to check how I was doing and make sure I wasn't going so slowly that I'd need to cut the run short.

At the 5K point - 32:30something
At the 5.05mi point - 53:05

I first needed to walk a little at what ended up being 6.1mi - turned up the last monster nasty hill that I haven't run up in over a year.

Overall, I did the 8.2 miles in 1:26:39 for a 10:34.02/mi pace which I WILL SO TAKE RIGHT NOW. Compare that with BolderBOULDER ... two miles shorter and my pace was 10:33.88. If there wasn't proof I was getting stronger, take a longer run with a nastier week of training already on my legs and ... basically the same pace.

Now granted, ideally I'd be at a quicker pace, but I have to keep telling myself that the pace IS dropping slowly and it's dropping slower than usual because I'm putting in more miles.

Think of it this way: this week, I've put in 15.4 miles of running (not running tomorrow, so that total stays). That is my longest week of running EVER. Looking at last year's total ... my MONTHLY totals were higher than that for FOUR months out of last year.

You read that right: I ran more this week than I did for 8 of 12 months last year. That's just pathetic. Still, that's how one learns and how one grows. We've all gotta start somewhere, right? I'm also going to have to remind myself of this next year when my training weeks for Boulder 70.3 equal my training months from this year. ;)