Showed that mile who's boss...

When I first started back to running last fall, I did a timed mile once a month. I started with the first one on Oct 2, 2010  and it took me 8:45. And I was all fired up :)  November's was slower... 8:51... and I was all fired down :(  Then I got faster by December and was able to knock out a mile in 8:17. And I felt smokin' once again.

At that time, I was so very excited to be able to finally run again that there was no thought given to times from the olden days. I was a lot faster in the olden days. Last night's effort made me feel like I can get it back... which is exciting for me.

I went out looking to hit 7:30.

No... I didn't do this at a track. Why would I do it at a track when I live in a perfectly decent gated community with flat streets? I have googlemaps. I know how to add.

I pieced together a 1.0056 mile run on my loopty-loops. The quarters were actually, in order, 0.252, 0.249, 0.252 and 0.252. I had intermediary one-eighths plotted out... they were approximate, but I adjusted the desired split accordingly. And because it wasn't like on a track where you want to hit the same thing each time you come around, I wrote the splits I needed down on my hand (wish I had gotten a pic of that).

For example, I needed to hit the first manhole cover around the corner in 57.6 seconds and get to the mailbox post for the seventh house on the next block over 55.8 seconds after that (my first quarter... aiming for 1:53.4). The stop sign by the pool marked the next quarter... I totally screwed up the one-eighth mark in my calculations and got way bummed out by the "one-eighth split" time :P But I know that stop sign marked the half! This may sound really confusing and like a lot of work, but it really helps prevent my mind from wandering and takes the focus off how hard it all is.

While the first half was ever so slightly slower than my target, my third quarter rocked! Entering that final quarter, I closed my eyes for a second and almost got hit by a car. Oooops. Then as I came alongside the pool, I felt a thickness welling up from my belly into my ribcage. No! No! No! I kicked the pace up a notch for those last 20 seconds and only barfed a little bit into the back of my throat. I swallowed it.

Seven.

Twenty-four.

Thirty-seven.

Very similar-sounding to body measurements... but not quite the same... 7:24.37.

With negative splits :)

1:54.36
1:52.63
1:50.44
1:46.94

I think I effectively tricked myself!

I was really working hard...

look how red my face is and how messy my hair is... 

too bad you can't smell me cuz then you'd really know how hard I worked...

but you can see right up my nose... all clean!

this was waiting for me...

"you're kidding..."

Cleaning the kitchen was not what I was wanting to do.

So I didn't.