Training Day #2

After yesterday's run, I wasn't sure how tonight's run would go. My training scheduled called for 2 miles. I decided to go back to my trusty interval timer to help pace me through tonight's run. Given my incredibly slow pace, I picked a program that I had labeled "3:1 - 3 miles" thinking I probably would be lucky to cover my 2 miles.

Surprisingly, unlike last night, the first mile went by fairly painlessly. Minimal coughing and strong legs helped. Then around 2 miles in, the fatigue of the last few weeks started to set in. I could feel my body's reaction to having not done anything besides sleep over the last two weeks. But something in me said "keep going" so I did. And surprise!

I finished 3.02 miles! I was honestly a little shocked when I lifted the towel (side note: I have to cover the panel of the treadmill or else I obsess over my distance, time and speed, making the run that much longer and painful). I was super pleased to see my pace had dropped almost a full minute from last night. And when I factor out the 10 minutes of warm up and cool down, my "running" pace was just a few seconds over 13 minutes a mile. Overall tonight's run was better. I still coughed. I still walked more than I wanted to. But at the end of the run, I felt like I could have kept going. Part of me wants to continue to dwell in the "I can't do this" arena, but of all things, I realized my body (even in it's weaken state) is strong and CAN do this. My muscles are remembering what we've done for months now. So maybe, maybe, this running 9 miles things is actually possible. 39 days to go!