Thursday, April 21, 2011

Runners High

I have it. Right now.
I just got back from my mid-week 4 miler and I feel amazing! I ran fast, for me.
I posted a question on daily mile earlier today about tempo runs. Now, I'm new to this whole running thing so I had no idea what a tempo run was. I'm still not quite sure if I have the right idea. But it just felt right.
The reply I got came from one of my new found blogger friends, Vanessa from Gourmet Runner. She said, "...it's at your lactate threshold, so it's basically your race pace for 20-30 minutes...The point is to learn how to sustain a fast pace over a longer period of time. Hope that helps!"
It did help, Thanks Vanessa!
I personally do not have a race pace. In fact, I have been rather against it. I didn't want to put any unnecessary pressure on myself, being a beginner and all. I thought if I had a goal pace I would get discouraged by not meeting it and then quit before I even tried. I wanted running to be something that stuck with me for the rest of my life, so I had to love it. And allow myself to be slow, if that's what I needed.
So, back to the BEST RUN EVER! Today's run was only supposed to be 4 miles so I figured today was a good day to try this tempo run thing. I warmed up  in my home with a few yoga poses, stretching and calisthenics. Then I hit the road and started my stopwatch (a tool that I almost never use). I jogged for the first block, then I thought, "Why not just go for it? I can always stop and walk if I want to." So I did. A 155bpm Podrunner mix  helped a little, and I ran as fast as I could comfortably sustain. I only had to slow down  a couple of times as I went up hills or breathed my way through a side stitch or two. I slowed to a walk/slow jog at 3.96 miles and clocked the lap. After a five minute cool down I looked at my clock.

This is what it told me...
Can you say PR?

3.96 miles at 33:41 turns out to be an average pace of 8:30/mile. I set a new personal record today and I am grinning from ear to ear. This is a major accomplishment for me (not to mention getting overcoming my fear of stopwatches). I'm pretty tired but the happiest camper around. It doesn't even matter there is nobody home but me. I had to share it with someone right away, so I'm sharing my joy with you!

I'm so proud of myself that I could just jump right out of my clothes! Actually, that IS the next thing on my agenda; I'm in serious need of a shower.

4 comments:

  1. Congrats on such a great run! Glad I could help a bit--I'm still learning all the running jargon too!
    :)

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  2. So exciting. I know milestones feel so great! Congrats!

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  3. If you have an iphone look into the runkeeper ap! IT ROCKS!!

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