Seven Miles!

It's amazing what one can do if one sets a goal and then works toward it in a focused and structured way. In February, I was doing run-2 minutes, walk-1 minute, for 30 minutes, covering about 2 miles, and that was a good workout. Five months later, I did run-3, walk-1, for one hour, 44 minutes, and covered 7 miles, (plus a little more) finishing with a strong 6 minute run (thank you Talking Heads for that little energy boost just when I needed it most) at the end. I decided to force myself to stick with the 3:1 all the way through, knowing I'd need the energy I'd saved for the end, and I was right - I feel fine now! (I could use a nap, but that's just because I haven't had a good night's sleep all week!)

The race is not til November and now I'm starting to feel really confident that I will be very fit for it. (Actually, a tiny voice is saying, hmmm....maybe that full marathon isn't out of reach! But I must squash that tiny voice!!!) And, by the way, my average pace at 7 miles today was a whole minute per mile faster than for 6 last week - 14:50 instead of 15:50. That's because I felt strong the whole way, I"m sure.

However, I still hate my HRM - it did a little better today, taking Michelle's suggestion to tighten the strap, but still often read out something weird like 78 when I'm sure I was in the 140's or 150's. I find that I'm usually working in the 148 range - if I get above 150 I get too out of breath and can't sustain it. I guess if I'm going to be using the HRM I should find out more about where I should be working and how to use those numbers to improve!