Half a minute faster

I still don't know how this works, but after 3 weeks of easy running (apart from the sessions with Patty), I turned up for our second sub-5 miling assessment time trial and saw a massive improvement.

The object of the day (after warm-up and drills) is to run the same distance at the same heart rate -- 80% of heart rate reserve, or around 153 bpm for me -- as we did three weeks ago. Back then I ran it at 8:00 per mile pace, or even a bit slower; today I ran at 7:30 pace for the same effort. This stuff works!

More good news: both Kyle and I did 100m strides in 16 seconds. OK, it was wind-assisted, but it was nectar to our ears to hear Bobby saying, "Too fast, guys."

This is all making me wonder what I have been doing to myself for the last year or so, with every training run a killer. It is such a PLEASURE to get back from a run and be able to sit down without seizing up; to be able to walk normally for the rest of the day :)

The big challenge for us age-group, would-be record-smashers, according to Bobby, is not going to be getting aerobically fit, not even growing the capacity to run at sub-5 pace -- it is going to be improving and maintainng flexibility and leg speed, so we can do the times that we need in training without injuring ourselves.