04 April 2009

Whoa -- This Can't Be Right

Okay... so I am doing an easy three on Tuesday afternoon and it is going real nice and easy. I feel that I am running a good pace between 10:30 and 11:00. To confirm this I look at my watch...

9:45???

This can not be right. I keep my pace as steady as possible and the pace only slows by about 5 seconds. I turn my attention back to my run. It felt too easy, there was no way I was running under 10 minutes per mile.

The day was clear and sunny. As I was coming up to a park I decided to stop at one of it's water fountains and get a sip. I also thought it might be a good idea to check my Forerunner. According to the navigation it had clear view of a number of satellites and good reception from those satellites as well.

Am I really getting faster?

I finished my three mile run at an avg 10:19 pace. This is not incredibly fast, but it is the fastest avg pace I have ran in a long time.... actually I think the fastest ever. hmmm.

So here comes Friday morning. I run before work, but this time is a little different than my other pre-work runs. Since I do not have to be in until late, I decide to take my time and actually jog a half mile as a warm up before I start my run.

The warm up felt nice and I got to the spot where I wanted to start my run. Hit the start button on my Forerunner and get going at a nice easy pace.

It was raining, so my jacket was covering my watch. I barely heard the beep when I reached my first mile split. Whenever I hear that beep I can not help but look at my split time, so I did...

9:52???

My mile split was actually less than 10 minutes? I can not believe this, it is my fastest mile time ever. So I decide to finish this short run fast. I was only doing two miles so I continued strong, and decided not to look at my watch at all the rest of the run.

I finished hard and out of breath, but not exhausted. I ended 2.02 miles in 20:08. A 9:59 pace. The fastest avg pace I have ever done during any run ever.

I am getting faster!?

For the rest of the day I felt like I was on top of the world. What does one do when they have such a huge milestone and breakthrough in performance? Find a race.

There is a 5k outside the Philadelphia Art Museum on April 18th. I have decided to sign up and go for a new PR. My current one is 32:14. Not really that fast by some standards, but that race was a milestone for me and gave me a huge boost in my confidence.

So if all things fall into place I will have a new PR in a couple of weeks. But if all things fall into place, and the stars and planets align correctly, and I warm up properly (something I do not always do), I think I will break 30 minutes.

If that happens, I will have a runners high for the entire weekend.

9 comments:

Pat said...

congratulations. Soon you'll (and me) will be down in the 8's and it won't feel any harder than an 11 does today. I feel the same way when I have a faster run. Do you ever do fartleks? Try running in the 8's for just 50 yards or so a couple times in your run. It's a blast.

Some guy named John said...

Yeah, I imagine you're getting faster. That's why I like to time even my "easy" runs: I figure that if I'm really getting fitter, then not only will my race times improve but what I perceive as easy pace will also get faster.

And good luck in the upcoming race! I'm betting that 30:00 is gonna be toast!

joyRuN said...

Congrats! It's definitely a great feeling to see those diminishing paces on the Garmin :)

Lindsay said...

congrats! always fun to see your avg pace go down. :)

now just make sure you still take some runs easy! i know it gets tempting to keep seeing the faster pace, but you gotta let your body recover to keep getting faster. super nice job on gaining more fitness and speed - keep it up!

Kim said...

That's awesome! Great job on your times.

Sonia said...

woohoo!! Good job =) I love how tangible running progresses are! You're doing great =)

SuperDave said...

It's an awesome feeling when you know that you are getting faster. Keep up the great running. Warmer weather and renewed inspiration makes great running!

Brian said...

Love seeing the progress man! It's only a matter of time til you see 9:30 or 9, keep it up!

pchieng said...

Good job on your improvements. I think the key to getting faster is to just keep running consistently. You may not notice yourself getting faster, but I'm sure you'll notice the same run you did a week ago be a lot easier. Good luck on the 5k too, I need to sign up for a race too. It's hard to stay motivated when you have nothing to really train for.