Worth the Wait

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 16:29
Location: Powhatan to Ottawa

I missed Monday's run, but I made up for it with a new 2010/11 PR in the 2-mile tonight. Saturday's 2 mile run was okay, a 17:13, which is good compared to my times last year, but not as good as last week's 16:38. But then tonight the extra days' rest must have paid off, because I ended up running a 16:29, moving 9 seconds closer to the 15s! I didn't feel all that great at the start of the run. My feet were aching and I still had a little bit of muscle pain. But that mostly went away when I got deep into the run. I really tried to push it for the first mile. I stayed on my toes almost the whole time, and I've been noticing that my reserved energy has been lasting longer and longer -- I didn't feel like I had done anything until a 1/4 mile into the run. During the 2nd mile my lower calf muscles began to hurt, especially my left one. I began trying different things, like pushing harder off my right leg. I was making a conscious effort to increase my pace. Even though I didn't feel all that great, I knew I still had a chance to set a new record. When I reached the final 400 meters I did everything I could to run faster. My legs didn't want to cooperate so I just started wildly swinging my arms. By the end I was using almost as much arm power as leg power! And I was glad I did. Thanks to my kick at the end I just barely broke my previous 2011 PR.

I've definitely noticed that since I've been trying to do all my running on my toes to lower my times, I've been feeling more stress on my calves. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, but I just need to strengthen those muscles so I'm not constantly nagged by muscle pain. I need to make sure to get in runs the rest of the week, especially since I missed Monday. I'm very excited about my progress so far, but there's still so much improvement left to make.