9 minute Miles

The other day Warren and I were slogging through a 5 mile run. It was kind of brutal. Not as bad as some runs I've been on when I was literally doing the death shuffle by the end, but still pretty unpleasant. We have been working on slowly increasing our miles so we can run in the Styx n' Stones 15K in March and this was the longest run to date.

As we are limping along I could see the frustration building up in my husband's face. Then he says, "Didn't we used to have no problem running 8 and 9 minute miles?"  I totally felt his pain because at this point Runkeeper told me we were holding steady at about a 10:45 pace.

I am trying to not be so hard on myself about it. Sure, I remember flying through my miles a few years ago. There is nothing better than watching your pace get faster and faster. And I keep reminding myself that the only way to get back to that pace is to lose some weight, log more miles, and incorporate speedwork.

Day before yesterday we were scheduled to run. Since our last run was 5m, this one was scheduled to be shorter. We didn't have a lot of time so I decided to make it a two mile run at race pace. We had virtually no warm up. Right out of the front door I locked in my pace and just ran it for 2.06 miles. It felt so good. When we got back home we clocked in at 18:11 for time. Pace was held steady for each mile at 8:48.

Pushing yourself can be scary sometimes, but its encouraging to know what your body is capable of. That itty bitty two mile run put a smile on both of our faces.