Pace

I think I had a breakthrough this week. . . I've finally discovered that the majority of the reason my pace was so slow was mental. Wednesday night, when I set out for my "medium" run for the week (8 miles), I decided I was actively going to try to keep a faster pace and see if going faster would actually result in me not being able to finish my run. I think subconciously, one of the reasons I was running so slowly was that I was afraid of "burning out" early on the run and then not being able to finish the mileage. Obviously, there are other reasons that I am slow too, but Wednesday night my pace was 15:11 min/mile and then Friday morning my pace was 14:34 min/mile. That's a huge improvement for me.

Rick asked me why I thought I was able to go so much faster and honestly, all I did was pay closer attention to my pace and focus. I realized that even when I was in the 14s and 15s that I didn't feel out of breathe or overly stressed. I just focused and tried to "associate" a little bit more, thinking about my form and my breathing when I felt my pace slow slightly. When I don't focus on my pace, it seems to want to settle in the 16s or the 17s. It didn't feel any physically harder to run a little bit faster, and it was great to finish my runs with a little less time invested!

I'm really hoping I continue to improve. My goal is to continue to focus and push my pace during my short and medium runs and ease off a little bit on my long runs.

If this keeps up, I might OFFICIALLY finish the marathon. My pace has really been my last true hold-out of fear about January 17th. I don't want to be "swept" off the course after all my hard work! Keep your fingers crossed.