Boy, I had a great run today! I felt good and went faster during the first mile than I usually do, and I continued a fast pace for the whole run. Prior to the GSL half-marathon in August, I would run 5 miles in the hour. Yesterday, I ran for an hour and went about 1/3 mile past the 5 miles. Today I went about 1/2 mile past the 5 miles. I keep mentioning that I let my body set the pace, and you're probably getting tired of hearing me say that. But, I'll say it again, because it is such an important aspect of running injury-free: I let my body set the pace today. I have to keep in mind, however, that even though I may have a high energy level that allows me to run a faster pace, I can still have a muscle injury if my muscles aren't strong. Hence, the importance of doing stretching exercises to (a) loosen my muscles, and (b) strengthen my muscles. And, the importance of getting rest after each heavy run.
Here are my splits from today (no water stops or walking breaks, as usual during my hour runs).
Mile 1 11:05
Mile 2 10:49 Included a brief stop to take off my wind breaker
Mile 3 10:28
Mile 4 10:33
Mile 5 10:00
As I ran today, I felt like I was running about the same pace that I did for my 13-mile run on Saturday. If so, I not only set a new PB for my 13-mile training run, but I might have broken my time for the half-marathon that I set in August. My average pace for the half-marathon was 10:48. Unfortunately, my stop watch quit working on Saturday after a couple of miles, so I don't have a time for that run and am not counting it as a PB. But, there are more Saturday runs to come....
Today was a significant improvement over yesterday's results. The fact that I ran an hour yesterday and an hour today is significant, because a few months ago I couldn't run two consecutive days. I'm obviously heading into a peak in my running, and it will be interesting to see how long the peak lasts before I go into a slump.
My wakeup HR was 47 this morning. The sky was cloudy during my run with a slight drizzle coming down. The temperature was in the mid 40s.
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