A real runner...?

Yesterday I ran 2 miles. Just 2 miles, but important ones. I ran the original "two bridge" run I first ran back at the end of January, six weeks after giving birth to monkey2.

Back then I was really pleased with myself because I ran all the way around, but clocked 22minutes.

This time I am so proud of the fact that I wiped 3minutes15seconds off my time for the route. That's a huge amount over such a short distance. It felt really good and strong, I was able to push when another runner overtook me, and was even able to "push for home" on the last straight.

I applied much of what I have learnt over the last couple of months - to increase my footstrikes per minute in order to both increase my pace and to reduce the force with which my feet land, to use other runners to push that little more, and to begin to gauge my pace.

I have my Garmin forerunner set up to beep with one pitch to warn me to speed up if my pace falls slower than 10:05, and with another pitch if my pace increases faster than 9:45 - throughout, apart from when I was climbing/descending steps at the bridges, it was indicating I was either within my specified zone, or more often, faster.

I resisted checking my pace until I uploaded the trace on the computer on my return:

The 3 peaks are the flights of steps and a short steep track upto the road where it is difficult to keep your pace up. Otherwise I maintained a sub-10minute mile pace throughout. (9:26 for 1st mile, 9.40 for 2nd).

Long run planned for this weekend, then some Fartlek or hill-running midweek.
Next weekend I'm going to attempt a 5k at sub-10 minute miling.

Clocks change tomorrow, affording me a wealth of new routes I can do in the evenings.