And I am so glad I did. I was supposed to do an easy three miles, but at the 1.5 mile mark where I could have turned around for an even 3, I felt good and strong, so I kept going. I finished out the 4 strong, not gasping for breath. It was a nice feeling. :)
I will say, running slowly is very interesting. I have to concentrate on maintaining a slow run when my legs want to speed up. However, I know that if I let myself speed up, I will need to walk sooner. As it was, I finished all 4 miles running, even if it was ridiculously slow!
But I can't help but wonder.... is taking it slow going to do anything for me? It lets me run longer, so that's good, right? And eventually, with my speedwork and tempo runs, my slow pace will increase until it's not so slow. That's the goal, at least. SmartCoach thinks it can get me running a half marathon in 2:25 by the time October rolls around, so I guess we will see!
Speaking of speedwork -- Wednesday (or maybe Thursday - Wednesday is my birthday and I might need to consume mass quantities of wings instead of running!) is my first ever speedwork run. I'm a little nervous!
Off to watch The Voice. Happy Monday, y'all!
Awesome job! I am ALWAYS looking for an excuse not to. So cool that you didn't talk yourself out if it.
ReplyDeleteI think slow and steady is good. This is what I have been doing for the last 6 weeks, and I have taken almost two minutes off of my per mile time. Now I really need to pick up the pace, I'll have to check out your speed work.
Oh, wow.... So slow running is working for you? Two minutes per mile is realllllly good! Go check out SmartCoach from Runner's World! It will tell you the tempo runs and speedwork you should be doing!!!
ReplyDeleteGood job on not listening to those voices ;) And adding a mile at that!! Sometimes the runs you dread the most turn into your best ones!
ReplyDeleteI'm following the SmartCoach plan too and I love it. Like I said, I played around with it a bit but overall it has really helped me improve.
When I started running again consistently in November I was doing a 12 min mile and just tried going faster gradually.
It's also the first time I've been able to run 3-4 times a week and increase my mileage without any knee pain so I'm a believer :)!