Treadmill Run

Just a quick update while I'm waiting for dinner to finish cooking...

This afternoon I put on my running clothes, psyched myself up to run in the chilly air and went outside to find am ugly, wet mess. Our temperatures were above freezing today so all the lovely snow we had this past weekend started to melt. This is great news for driving, but not so great news for running as I would have had to run through spots where the water was inches deep. At this point, running the street (with the deep puddles) is my only outside option as the sidewalks and trails aren't clear. So I decided to forgo the fresh air and headed to the gym.

I was dreading the gym a bit as it's always crowded this time of year and therefore pretty warm. I guess people were still stuck at home today because it really wasn't too bad. Warm, but not stifling. I had a 5 mile run on the schedule for today, but since I only managed to squeeze in a 3 mile run yesterday, I decided to run 6 instead to make up some mileage.

Overall, the run went pretty well. I managed to get into a groove fairly early on and zoned out a bit while I listened to instrumental music and watched a close-captioned episode of Property Brothers. The best thing that came out this run today was actually my first third or so. Despite the warmth of the gym and despite the fact I was a little tired going into this run, I was running at around a 10:00 minute mile pace for the first two miles! At one point, I even ran for a bit UNDER 10 minute miles and was able to keep my heart rate in check.

The fact that I was able to run at this pace, even for only a mile or two, is super encouraging. Sometime, as I'm trudging through my miles, getting frustrated with having to slow down for each subsequent mile, I wonder whether or not the heart rate training is really paying off. Today gave me hope that it's actually making a difference! I'm really looking forward to my third test coming up this weekend. I am hopeful that the numbers will show another drop in time.