Building a Mystery

Two things to share from the past week or so of running.

The first is that last Saturday I ran the farthest that I've ever ran before.  It was a 14 mile run, with a nine minute mile pace. Overall I felt pretty good which is encouraging.  At the end of it my feet and back were a little sore but I didn't have any lasting aches or pains or tiredness the following day. When I finished even knowing that I would have 12 more miles to go I didn't feel like that was totally unattainable.  Of course there is something to be said about the fact that there WAS (or is) 12 more miles to go and who knows how that is actually going to feel especially as the pace is supposed to get faster.

The second share was tonight I did six 800 repeats (pace per mile, so divide in half, was 6:27, 6:34 and 6:37) and as I did them I kept hearing my old high school teach coach, Kenny, saying "all I ask of you is thirty hard minutes a week" referring to our weekly speed workouts. I did not like them then, and now they are a challenge, but there is something so rewarding about them. And thinking, all I have to do is given thirty hard minutes, makes it all seem more manageable. Granted it does end up being longer than thirty with these workouts but I try not to focus on that. Instead all I think is what would Kenny think of me now, doing these long distance workouts, when I could barely manage to run a 5K due to not caring to train or push through discomfort.

Amazing what age can get you.