So I've been on the road traveling this week for work. I hit the road Monday morning before leaving with DW and logged 4 miles. Tuesday I was confined to a treadmill but forced myself to complete my scheduled 5 miler. Wednesday was another treadmill run of 4 miles. I normally run Tues, Wed, Thur, but with my traveling this week, I decided to change it up to Mon, Tues, Wed. I don't know if it was the extra rest or what, but I went out this morning for a short run. I honestly didn't have any pre-destined distance or pace or anything. I just told my wife I was going to go out and run something at some pace, but no more than 10 miles because I needed to work some.
I made a point to not look at my watch and obsess over pace and all. Fortunately it was still a little dark when I first started so I left the backlight off and just ran. It was about a mile in before I glanced at my watch, more for making sure it was recording my distance properly as the place I was running has heavy tree coverage and occasionally has a little trouble losing the satellite. I was running a strong pace and I felt really good so I just kept running.
I guess it was about 3 miles in before I thought, you know, I feel really strong and could negative split this run and PR a 10K this morning. I've had some very difficult runs lately and needed something good other than just logging miles. The summer heat has sapped my speed and even my endurance, but it was raining lightly and a big storm is coming in so I knew the cool morning was a rarity and I decided to take advantage of it.
I ran the first half of my 10K in 26 minutes. My previous 10K PR was in the low 53 minute range (I think anyway). I kept pushing hard, but running comfortably. I was getting faster despite the fact that I had already ran the first 4 miles at a nice pace, and definitely faster than I have been running this summer. My pace was closer to my winter/spring paces from earlier this year.
I ran the 5th mile in 8:02 and the 6th in 7:58. I ended up PR'ing by running my 10k in under 52 minutes! It was certainly a boost of encouragement I've been needing. My weight loss is going great and I feel like 200lbs. is a distant memory (even though I'm still within 3-5lbs. of it most of the time), but my running has been tough this summer after a winter and spring of PR's in every single race.
Just remember that no matter if you're having a tough time of things, you have to find those little things that push through to the next run or the next weight loss goal. Sometimes they don't seem in reach, but they're often just around the next corner. We'll never see them if we don't round that corner though. For the year, I'm about to eclipse 600 miles and I'm on pace to run between 1000 and 1100 miles this year. I took some time off (at least decreased my mileage) after my heavy race schedule so I've been logging about 100 miles per month over the past 2 or 3 months and will continue doing so until the end of the year to push me past my goal.
