An honest 7:46 mile

Last Friday, I set out to run a mile, putting a little effort into it, just to see how it would feel and to get some aggression out of my system. It was, well, it felt harder than 7:46, more like a 7:10. But it told me a few things. One, my cross training this past spring helped. It could've been a lot slower but the biking and swimming seemed to have preserved some of the fitness I built up before my injury. Two, I have my work cut out for me. I still suffer from some pain after runs but during the runs, my legs feel fresh, enough to start focusing on getting faster. However, it's going to take a lot of time to get where I want to be. And that's where the honesty comes into play. Since I am injury prone, I'm going to focus more on shorter distances but at a quicker pace, in both training and racing. I don't think I will do more than 40 miles a week to finish the year out.

This week, I am looking to get in 15 miles and eventually finish out the summer between 20 and 30, playing it safe with the foot. I've begun practicing with the cross country team and they've kept me honest as well. I think an adult runner can learn an important lesson from a high school runner: run by feel. Many of these kids don't run with watches, don't know what pace they are going and don't know what a tempo run is but they still go out there and run, with a sense of innocence. I was like that in high school. And now that I am older and working with kids, I'm reminded to try and balance the mindset of an adult runner with the mindset of a high school runner. When I run with them, I notice they push as hard as they can to stay together and when their bodies tell them otherwise, they stop. Where the adult runner comes into the picture is me, encouraging them to focus on breathing and letting them know they must pace themselves, that it's still early in the season and they are working towards getting in shape. But I can't discount the need to want to push themselves merely just to push themselves, like children racing against each other in an open field. And I can't forget to do that with my running either. Running that 7:46 mile was me being a kid again.