Today I finished a fourth run after my four in a row. The four were pretty consistent in terms of doing them as part of a training routine. I did them all with a rest day in between with teh exception of today and yesterday’s runs. So basically my last runs have all been done in a two week period (less actually). It’s as if the first four in a row established my routine and the last four have reinforced it.
The first seven runs were all over 10 min miles and felt pretty slow. I have shown steady improvement though and today’s run was the breakthrough clocking my 10k run at 9:45 min miles. I pushed it for segments trying hard to get under the 10 min mark. I didn’t really feel overly fatigued, or at least more fatigued than I have in the previous runs. Part of my improvement was probably due to feeling better than I have recently. But this flu/cold that I have had hasn’t really affected my breathing despite a rough cough. But I probably had more energy today than I have had of late.
It feels good to have some actual improvement that I can see and feel. I really want to improve my speeds and at least get back to running nine min miles. It will come I know. For right now I am happy to see progress and feel like I am getting somewhere. Actually the real improvement that I see has more to do with my attitude towards running. It feels less of a chore and more something I want to do. I think this all is a part of the last four runs cementing a return to running. Almost a return of running as a mindset which I think I sort of lost over the fall.