Training Day 20 - 11 Minute Mile (Well, Almost...11:03)

Tonight was a night of breakthroughs for me!  I went into this run feeling really good.  I was somewhat rested, at the very least better rested than I have been.  I was able to eat carbs again (yay!) since we found out that the boy does not have Celiac Disease so I felt well fueled also.  And I started running a little after 8:00pm instead of 9:00 or 10:00.  Also, it wasn't Monday.  So I had a lot going for me tonight!

I started off running at my normal speed, which has been between 5.3 & 5.5.  A few minutes into it I decided, what the heck, I'm going to push it a little bit - it's what I'm supposed to be doing anyway, right?  My goal is to run somewhere between a 6.0 & a 6.5 and I'm never going to get there if I don't up my game.  So I went to a 5.7.  It doesn't sound like a huge increase in speed, but I definitely felt it!!  I felt it most in my lungs and for a moment I thought my asthma was kicking in, but I never actually started wheezing so it was all good.  But I had to force myself to keep my breath steady.

I made a deal with myself - I said I wanted to run at a 5.7 for 10:00.  That should be a good amount of time for a new speed.  At 10:00, I was approaching running a mile, so I set the new goal of running at the new speed to the 1 mile mark.  I amazed myself and ran a mile in 11:32!!  Heck yeah!!  Keep in mind that when I started running, it was at a 5.3 and then a 5.5.  I wanted to see how fast I could actually run a mile if I kept it at a 5.7 the whole time.  So I hunkered down and kept the speed at 5.7.  And I RAN A MILE IN ELEVEN MINUTES!!!!  OK, so technically it was 11:03.  Either way, I am happy with that achievement!  I'm happy to break a 12 minute mile!!  I had no idea I could do that!!

Now that I had run 2 miles, I was ready to slow down a little bit, and I tried to bring it back to the 5.5 and I found it nearly impossible to keep it there!  I felt like the slow-down, even though it was slight, took my breath away.  It was harder to breathe at the 5.5 than it was at the 5.7!  I figured I'd give it a few minutes, try to settle into it for a bit, and I did but it was agony!  What's with that?!  But I only had a few minutes left so I kept at the 5.5 until the last minute - I wanted to see if I could run at a 6.0 for 1 minute.  And I did!!  Yay for meeting goals!  In total, I ran 2.39 miles and I am one happy camper :)

Just to re-cap, here are my accomplishments for the night:

• 1.  I ran at a speed of 5.7
• 2.  I ran a mile in 11:32
• 3.  I ran a mile in 11:03
• 4.  I ran at a speed of 6.0 for 1:00

 I'm feeling pretty good right now!!

So my goal for Friday is to beat the actual 11:00 mile, so I'll have to go up to probably a 5.8 or 5.9 to do that, at least for part of it.  And I'm going to try to run at a 6.0 for 2 minutes or more - we'll see how it goes!