Getting better!

Each day is going better than the last, which is really encouraging for me!

This weekend I raced my college alumni 5K race. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go; I hadn’t run hard in about 3 weeks. I was surprised how strong and fit I felt — I took it out easy, running in 2nd place through 1.25 miles. My first mile was in 5:52. From there, I decided to go for it. I had good control over my injured leg (adrenaline was probably preventing me from feeling anything), and didn’t feel like I was working very hard at that 5:52 pace. So, I went on to chase Laura. I caught her fairly easily and encouraged her to push along with me. She kept up with me through 1.75, but then dropped off.

My second mile was in 5:36; it helped having Laura there to push me. My third mile was in 5:47 (oops, let myself slip a little… wish I would have pushed harder here, I know I could have). I finished in 17:44.71, which is an all-time personal best for me. That’s 2 seconds faster than I’ve ever run — even on a track!! That’s pretty amazing, considering how little I’ve done lately!!

So, that tells me that I’m more fit/fast than I thought. My previous best 5K on a CC course was 18:20 in college, which makes this run a 35 second PR. I had a thought while running: I don’t think I can pull together for the twin cities marathon, but what about the 10 mile? That might be perfect! My leg can handle shorter distances, and I’d like to race this fall so I could take advantage of my training and fitness. Plus, it’d be fun to race a 10 mile and shoot for a PR at that distance!!

On to Sunday: I ran around home with the only goal to test out the leg. It was a little shaky at first, but as I went it became better and better, to the point where there’s only a teeny bit of power loss and a hitch in the turnover. Not bad!!! I went 13.6 miles, which is the most I’ve been able to do since the injury. The best part was that I didn’t finish with a leg that felt dead — it was actually pretty strong and I thought I could go longer, but I want to play it safe and ramp up mileage slowly.

YEAH!! I emailed TCM today to see if I can switch. Wonder if they’ll allow that? I haven’t heard back from Des Moines yet on their marathon — if I get a response from that (and the leg continues to get better), I’ll decide on that then.

Again, I just have to say it: YEAAAAAHHHHHH!!! 🙂 🙂