I'm still running. Slowly, but still running.
Adding a running partner was the best thing I ever did for my progress. He's significantly faster than me but drops down to just above my pace so I'm forced to work a little harder than if I was running by myself.
A few weeks ago we signed up for a 5k and the morning of the race we woke up to ice covered EVERYTHING! All of the trees, sidewalks and streets were covered in a sheet of ice. Walking was difficult, driving was difficult, I could only imagine what running would be like!
We slid our way to the starting line and found the race organizers had moved the course to a perfectly cleared route. We set off on our run and I felt pretty good. I ran the entire route without stopping to walk, which is huge for me. When we got to the finish line I noticed our time was just over 30 minutes. I knew something was off because there is no way I ran 10 minute miles. It turns out, when they moved the course we lost about a quarter of a mile. I was still pretty happy with the run though, I came in at just over 12 minutes a mile.
I knew I was progressing, albeit slowly!
After the confidence boost from that run we headed out a few days later for a run after work. I felt like I was flying but I did my best to keep up and not walk. I took 2 short walk breaks and after 4 miles I finally saw an average pace in the 11-minute time frame! I was so excited.
Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I set out on my own run and despite a few walk breaks I still averaged in the 11's.
I'm 19 weeks out from the mini-marathon I want to run so it's time I start focusing on distance and endurance. I think speed will come naturally. I'd like to run the half between 10-11 minutes per mile.
Someone suggested I download a playlist with songs that run at 160 bpm so I might try that!
