Today I felt like my “Return to Running” program un-officially ended. While I haven’t been on the specific plan in a couple of weeks, I’ve still been very conservative with my mileage and pace, taking frequent walk breaks, and not running more than 3 or 4 consecutive days without a break. This has led to my “training” feeling slightly abnormal.
Well, this morning was the first run since the injury that felt like a normal long run with our group. The plan was for a 10 to 12-mile run in Belle Meade, but Nathan and I met a little early and got in 3.5-miles before the rest of the group arrived. During this warmup, we did a 10/1 run/walk ratio, but after this I completed the remainder of the run in 30 to 40-minute segments, only stopping briefly for fluid breaks.
Nathan and I ended up running most of the route with Tyler, Andy, and Robert, and our pace generally got quicker throughout, with 5 of the last 6 miles under 8:00 pace, and a final mile of 6:53:
The thing that felt so great about this run was that I had the energy to maintain the faster pace in the later miles. The last few days I’ve been thinking a lot about getting into a long run schedule for the Rock n’ Roll NOLA Marathon, and worried about having the endurance and energy to get where I want to be by race day at the end of February. Today, those fears subsided significantly since a solid 15-miler puts me right where I need to be for the more intense training in December and January.
A big thanks to Nathan, Andy, Tyler, and Robert for pushing and pacing me to my best, post-injury training run! It feels good to be back.
Beast Mode….ON!