An accomplishment a long time coming

Friday morning I ran 5k in Madison WI. inspired by all the collegiate cross country kids in my hotel. Friday night I did 2 miles of sprint intervals and felt pretty good about myself.  My whole body was sore with DOMS by Sat afternoon from the effort I put into the sprints.  

Sunday I decided that I would run long.  My goal was to do 10k which I have never done.  I mostly run 5k and have been focusing on speed.  So my runs are generally 3-3.6 miles always in that range and always in a 28-33 min time frame.

Lately I have felt like I haven't really been pushing myself to my absolute limit and I feel like I'm cheating myself by not making progress.  Why or how I got into this rut I don't know but I'm set on getting out of it.  The sprints were one way and me pushing to do faster and faster miles and faster 5K times is another.  Sunday I got this crazy Idea that I had the ability to do 10K so I did.

I felt pretty good starting out a little sluggish mostly from poor diet.  After the first mile I had settled into a pretty good rhythm and was keeping a careful eye on my pace to make sure I wasn't trying to go to fast my first time.

I did start out a little fast but managed to get things slowed back down to my "safe speed".  I brought a water bottle with me and was glad I had.  Running 5Ks without water is fine but I didn't want to run twice the distance without anything.

At the halfway I was feeling awesome which was good but I figured by mile 4.5 or 5 is where I would feel the hammer.    I just kept spinning my legs with keeping my head up and tried to focus on my form so I didnt get tired from running inefficiently.   Mile 4 came and went without even a twinge of fatigue.  As Mile 5 ticked by I felt invigorated by the distance and the thought that I was actually going to get this done.  I did catch my pace slowing but I think it was more from not being "aware" of my slow down more then anything else.


As mile 6 clicked by I was beaming.  My smile must have freaked people out who were driving.  I felt awesome and actually considered continuing just to see how far my body would let me go but decided since I normally only go half that distance I didnt want to strain anything. 

I ran a total of 6.4 miles in 1:10:08  Actual 10K time was 1:08:01