Pick Up The Pace

Today my goal was to break 15 minutes in a two-mile workout. I was a little concerned going in because:

1) I was only able to run every other day this week rather than daily as planned.
2) On Monday I ran the same workout and it took everything I had to finish in just over 15 minutes.

I'm finally getting to a point where a warm-up run doesn't feel like part of my workout; so I started with two slow laps just to get warm and stretch. I felt good and confident and figured I needed to run 1:52.5/lap to get right at 15 min. If I could keep this pace then I knew I could let it go on the final lap and get my mark.

I start my run at what seemed to be a pretty good clip but came across the first lap at 1:56.5, slower than my first lap on Monday. I was concerned because things weren't feeling right and now I knew I had to re-adjust my pace for the entire rest of my run just to hit the mark. I didn't do the math in my head mid-run but resolved to pick it up slightly and check things out at the mile mark.

Halfway through I was at 7:32. I was hurting but knew I could do 4 more laps. Now I just had to settle into my originally planned pace coupled with a sub-pace final lap and I would have it. The next 3 laps were right on pace and with a decent final lap I finished in 14:52!

Every run like this seems to hurt more than the last but today marked the 1 month anniversary of my new commitment to running and I knocked over 3 minutes off my 2-mile time just in training. I'm going to have to get to training daily and I would like to add some interval work at the track along with some longer runs. Now that my body is becoming more capable, preparing for a 5k by running 2 miles is beginning to feel rather insufficient.

Mike