Full Moon Still Night

Distance: 3 miles
Time: 27:21
Location: Granite Hills

I have no idea how my 3-mile time has been improving. Since June 1st I've run four 3-milers and each one has been faster than the last. Yet I also feel like each one has been very difficult in different ways. Tonight was one of the toughest. I headed up to Granite Hills again (after my plan A of running at Horsemen's didn't work out) and ran the same route I ran on June 4th (two loops around the school and one loop out in the desert). I started out very slow because I was beginning to feel a cramp start up and also I had felt some muscle pain in my right calf. But that slow start ended up working against me. I wasn't able to ever really turn it on after that. I settled into a lethargic pace and it was hard to break. However, my first mile was about an 8:30, so I wasn't going as slow as it seemed. My second mile wasn't much better. I slowly made my way to the third and last mile, and this is when I began to struggle. It was late in the evening, around 8:30pm, so I had no strong sun to contend with, but the air was very warm and stagnant (after a day of almost triple digit heat). These conditions made it hard for me to endure. When I had about 1200 meters left I began to want to stop. It took everything I had to keep going. With about 800 meters to go I had to dig deep to keep it up. But by the time I hit the last 400 meters, with the finish line in sight, I found my reserves. I finished with probably my strongest kick yet this year! I don't know where the energy came from. I must have been storing it with my extremely slow pace. The biggest surprise though was my time. I was utterly convinced that I would be getting a slower time than my previous slowest, which was a 28:09. Instead I ended up with a 27:21, 12 seconds faster than my time Saturday! I can't explain it. I guess I'll take it as a good sign. Now I just have to get at least 3 or 4 more runs in this week. I only have 2 says of work left before summer..... I have no excuses anymore, period.