Breakthrough Run

This week is a step-down week for me where my mileage drops from 46 to 37. I have been looking forward to this week as a chance for my legs to rest up for the next progression to 54 miles/week. The week didn't start out well as Tuesday's run was a GA run scheduled for 8 miles + 8/100m strideouts. I ran them at the gym on the treadmill where the plan was to run at 8:34/mile pace. As soon as I started running, I didn't have a good feeling and doubted whether this would be the first workout that I would quit on. By mile 2, I was feeling light-headed and knew I should have fueled up before the run. I had to pause after mile 3 to take a water break (I hit the pause button, giving me 45 seconds to walk to the water fountain and back and then continue), which gave me enough energy to go 2 more miles before having to take another water break. After that, I had to slow it down to 9:09/mile pace for the rest of the run. When I was done, I was pretty dejected and surprised that I couldn't hold that pace for the entire 8 miles. It was one of those feelings where you think about quitting and wondering if all of this is worth it.

After sleeping on it, I ran my recovery run the next day, listening to my music, and just trying to enjoy the blessing of being able to run. I felt much better, knowing that yesterday's feelings were not how I truly felt, but just captured the disappointment of the run. As I've heard from other runners, I should have just chalked it up as a bad day, moved on, and forgot about it.

Today, I had scheduled another GA run of 8 miles. I decided to run this one around the neighborhood trails and the park nearby at an 8:30/mile pace. As I started out, my shins were tight and killing me. This lasted for about 2 miles, before they loosened up. Then everything kind of fell into place. My rhythm was smooth, my legs were firing at a good turnover pace, and my breathing was at a steady cadence. The first few miles were at an 8:20 pace and then each mile got progessively quicker. The last three miles were run at 7:50 pace. When I was done, I was elated because I felt that I had made a huge breakthrough towards increasing my overall speed/endurance. From a pacing standpoint, this was one of my best runs thus far. It left me with a feeling that I can accomplish my goal of breaking 4 hours in the marathon come May 31st. Here are the numbers for the run:

8.0 miles/ 1:04:54/8:07 pace