Fast week

Today was my last long run before the F^3 Lake Half next weekend. I have been looking forward to this race for a while and after this past week, I'm even more excited.

Despite being sick this week (poor me), I have had some solid, fast (relatively), effortless runs.

After last weekend's 11 miles with a severely reduced run group (there were only two of us), I was confident with the distance. Well, I was confident before the run but it's reassuring to put that last long, long run in. After last weekend though, I am not confident about summer. At around 50 degrees (F, or 10 degrees Celsius) it was warm for January but probably not what would be classified as warm weather generally. But it was still too warm for me and I did not come out of that run feeling well. I need to come up with plan to fix this.

Anyway, back to fast week. I put in 5 miles on Tuesday - it ended up being an unplanned progression run. And by unplanned I mean I didn't have a plan going into it, other than run and I didn't have a plan during it, other than keep on running. I love running with a watch but very rarely look at it while I'm running. I especially love coming home and seeing how I've done.

This run was amazing on so many levels - I love how I just kept getting faster and faster. And I LOVE my mile 5 time of 9:12. The day I have a mile that's under 9:00 (and I know it will happen) I think I will probably lose it.

Wednesday was 4 miles (supposed to be 3 but I got a bit excited). Hello 9:50 average! Another unplanned progression run. Another run where I wasn't pushing myself as much as I can.

Training is awesome - you run consistently (or semi-consistently) and you improve!!

Finally, Friday was another 5 miles. Technically another progression run and yet again, three sub-10:00 miles.

After my best week of running yet, I am so ready for next weekend. And I am ready for more in 2013. I hope to unveil my race plans soon - there's plenty more 13.1 mile/21.1 km runs in my future!