Less than Seven

Sometimes I find myself surprised.

In fact, today was full of surprises. For example, it rained. I suppose if I paid attention to weather forecasts I would have seen that one coming, but I no longer follow any information services (no newspapers, no radio, no t.v. news broadcasts, ignore updates on my smartphone...). I guess I kind of like surprises.

Anyway...

I planned on running this morning after dropping my kids off at school. But that didn't happen. I really wanted to go back to bed. So I did.

It was going to be an epic double Moeser...maybe even a triple. If I was going to exercise, I was craving arduous. Instead, I did the total opposite...I sacked out. It was necessary, but then I was faced with really wanting to run and not having the time to do what I planned and needing to shift directions.

The next window of running opportunity came at 8 p.m. Moeser was no longer an option in the dark and away from home. And the idea of slow, easy, boring loops at home in the dark was repellent.

Hmmmmm...what to do? what to do? A-HA! I know...

Time for a timed mile :D

I scarfed down a chicken andouille sausage because I was starving, got the kids in bed, put on my running clothes and decided to just do the best with what I had going on. I didn't stress about burping up spicy meat or the possibility of rain. I had a rough idea of what I was shooting for... a single seven-minute mile. My plan was to hit the first quarter in 1:45 in the hopes of an evenly paced mile and then either watch the wheels fall off, hang on to it, or destroy it. Or whatever the experience held for me. I was open to anything.

My two-mile warm up was comfortable and relaxed, but the few pick-ups I tossed in seemed to register slow on my Garmin. I adjusted my plan to running a 7:30 mile...I didn't care if I was slow, I wanted to feel successful :)

*beep*

I started running.

Oh, sh*t...the damn Garmin said 6:34. Well, whatever...just do what you can is what I told myself. After a blistering first quarter (6:31), I slowed considerably. I stopped looking at the watch and just ran. I felt like I kept things just this side of disaster. And somehow I managed to keep each quarter under 1:45 and finished the whole mile in...

6:47

The fastest I've run since 1997.

I felt like this.

But older.

And hey, wow...

I know you have all missed a good voting frenzy ;-)

Click on this pink circle and scroll down to Taking It On and click the little thumbs up...once every 24 hours...and it could be that very voting frenzy we've all been missing!

We could pretend that your votes are a little reward for running so super fast ;-)

Thanks in advance :)