Someday I WILL be Faster

Today I committed to running 7.5 miles and I tried to get up by 5am. Instead I was up at 6am and out the door by 6:20am, which made for a nice cool run with the sun at bit of a low blinding angle. I planned ahead and had Tootsie Rolls in my pocket so that this time (unlikely my last run) my legs wouldn't run out of sugar to burn after only 3 miles. This worked well and I enjoyed having a kick in my step the last two miles.

I ran an average pace of 11:32, but the last mile and a half I was running at around a 10:45 pace. I love the pace calculating tool at the following website, by the way, and hope you use it to: http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/4/4_1/96.shtml I would love to be faster then I am and had hoped be running at a 10 min mile pace by now. I think I could maintain a 10 min mile for perhaps 3 miles, but not more than that. For now I am pleased that I have some good endurance, my legs are strong, and I don't feel any injuries coming back. I can run 7.5 miles no problem. Of course I did feel like eating everything in sight this morning (french toast by Nate and coffee and a McGriddle from McDonalds later and I finally felt full).

I hope I can run my miles in the Hood to Coast a bit faster than I did my run this morning (I think I can do that since I'll be running it in three legs with 5 hours or so recovery between each run - 6 miles, 4 miles, and then 4 miles.)

I also looked up my old records of when I ran the KC Half marathon in 2005 while training for my marathon one month later (can you believe that the results from that race are still on the Internet.) I ran/walked that half marathon with a chip time of 2:47:00 (12:45 per mile pace). I'd like to beat this time soundly when I run the Sacramento Half Marathon on Oct 4th 2009 - two pregnancies later and 4 years older and hopefully 25 pounds lighter. My goal is to run this half marathon in under 2:20:00 (10:41 min mile). It is fun to think of my 31-year-old self betting a race against my 27-year-old self.

My long-term dreams include running a 5k, 10k, and Half Marathon all at 9:30 min pace, which would be total times of 29:30, 59:01, and 2:04:32. Perhaps I'll shoot for those time goals in the Fall of 2010 after another year of training by running at least 20 miles a week. Someday not only will I have endurance (like the Energizer bunny) I'll also have speed (like a real bunny).