We meet every Tuesday evening for a run. We're up to 4.5 miles now (up from 3 miles in the initial weeks), but this coming week we'll do our first track workout. I'm really looking forward to the track workout--it'll be a nice change and fun to feel like a kid again!
We also meet early every Saturday morning for our long runs. We're up to the 6-7 mile range now. The long runs are definitely the greatest gift from my participation in the group.
I've NEVER enjoyed trying to talk while running, and I usually feel awful if I think I'm slowing someone down. Well, in this group, I've been fortunate to fall into line with a couple of other girls who are at a similar pace, so we've been sticking together on the long runs. I'm finding that talking while running gets easier as I get more fit, and that it is an amazing distraction that makes the run go faster. In short, I love it.
While running long distances alone is much harder (as I learned this past weekend), I'm comforted knowing that just having people around during the race itself will help.
And, this week, I set a new personal record when I ran 4.5 miles in 42 minutes. I haven't broken a 10-minute mile on a run that long before. I also banged out 3 miles in 28 minutes the other day, another PR. It's really exciting to see my pace improving. Heck, I'm just happy to be running at all, and happy to be running faster than an 11- or 12-minute mile.
Whatever else comes out of my training this spring, I feel confident that I'll continue to stay involved in my running group and may even look into mentoring the beginners' running group. I may even train for another half-marathon this year. But, let me finish training for this one first.
Cheers!
