Surprising Paces

Saturday morning's run and this morning's run felt sluggish. Halfway through the run on Saturday, I realized I had forgotten to eat my usual pre-run banana and chalked the sluggish legs up to not having the proper fuel. This morning I was really hoping for something better but I still felt like I was running at a snail's pace.

Before I was forced into a two-month hiatus, I was running my easy, comfortable runs at a 10:30 average. This was an improvement on the 12:00 miles I was running when I first
started out and I was really feeling good about it. Along with a loss of leg endurance and strength and lung power, I was concerned about how my easy, comfortable pace would be
affected. I had mentally prepared myself to be back in the 11:00 to 12:00 range.

The last two runs have had me feeling sluggish and slow but both times when I got home and checked my paces, the running portions have been in the 10:00 to 9:30 range! This morning I
did 11 min. run/1 min. walk x 3 intervals and the 3 running intervals were 10:05, 9:47 and 9:22 respectively, despite the fact that I had convinced myself that I would seeing much slower paces. This increase in pace has been the only pleasant surprise resulting from the injury but it is one I'll take, for sure.

I'm curious to see if this speed holds up as the distances increase from 3 miles to 5 miles as the weeks progress. I think, the increased pace could be the result of taking two months off and allowing not only my injury to heal but also the rest of my body, the walking breaks that I have inserted in to the runs to slowly build back up, or both. I am trying to control my enthusiasm but as I was walking to work this morning I started thinking about aiming for 9:00 miles in my
marathon training this winter/spring.

That would mean a sub-4 hour marathon if I could really do it. I don't know; I'm hesitant to get excited but seeing my pace in the single digits is something I usually only saw in shorter races. If the past runs have been hard and I've still maintained a faster pace, just imagine how it'll feel cruising along at a 10:00 to 9:30 pace when I'm feeling relaxed.

Today's Daily Dozen:
3.55 mile run (11 min. run/1 min walk x 3 intervals)
1 hour walk @ lunchhour