Persistence

Sometimes I feel like I'm just not working out enough. I hear other people talking about their twice-daily workouts, their boot camp classes, their extra early morning swims, and I think that my little once-per-day workouts aren't enough. I'm getting in about an hour a day, four to five days per week, plus one really long workout on the weekends (the last one was about 3.5 hours), but I still hear about people doing more, going farther, going faster.

I forget sometimes that this is my race, they are my workouts, and I am going at my pace. And my pace it what I have been doing. I see improvement in all areas and I feel how tired I am, and I slap myself around and realize I don't think I could squeeze in one more workout during the week if you paid me.

My progress was evidenced last night at the track workout, where I got in 4 miles. After the 1-mile warmup that included a bunch of drills and the ten-minute core workout, we ran for 30 minutes (short, I know!), where each lap was a 250-meter just-faster-than-race-pace jog, a 100-meter sprint, and a 50-meter recovery jog. My laps started in the 2-minute-28-second range and I held to within about 15 seconds per lap (so within a minute per mile) - my splits were then: 2:29, 2:26, 2:31, 2:32, 2:35, 2:39 (starting to get tired here!), 2:40, 2:42, 2:45, 2:44, and 2:45. That means I got in 3 miles in just about 30 minutes, and my first mile was 9 minutes and 53 seconds, and my last mile was 10 minutes and 51 seconds. I knew I was slowing way down on those last laps, but I was going hard on the 100 meters and really not hard on the 50-meter recovery. I think I can comfortably run about 10 to 10:30 minute miles no problem, and hold it for a while (as long as there's no sprinting in the middle!). For me, that is a HUGE improvement over my 12 to 13 minute mile time...

So, again I have to stop competing and just focus on my own progress and how I am feeling. The competition part is only fun for me in the pool anyway. Yes, that's where I can win. I don't like losing much. And I find running rather humbling, so maybe that's good for me.