"One" of Those Workouts

You ever have “one” of those workouts. No, not the bad kind, but actually a good one. Well, I had one the other day.

I was on my last long run of the week and was hoping just to get through the 10 miles I had planned. I figured my legs would be tired after running just over 11 miles the day before.

I went into the run with a few things on my mind. First, I wanted to drink every 10 minutes to begin training my body for this type of distance. Second, I wanted to eat some Jelly Belly Beans every 30 minutes to keep my system “full” of "nutrients". Lastly, I wanted to maintain a comfortable 8:00/mile pace as I ran the Timberman 70.3 course.

My run started out innocently enough. Everything was going well and I was feeling very comfortable without heavy legs. Early on, I was maintaining a sub-8:00/mile pace and not overly worrying about the time. I drank and ate as I continued on my little journey.

At mile 4, I realized that I was about 2 minutes ahead of schedule. I figured a 7:30 pace was fast for a training run but I didn’t feel tired or fatigued. As the miles clicked off, my times got faster each mile. By mile 7, I was 5 minutes ahead.

At this point, like anyone who loves to compete, I started to push myself. I never, for a minute, felt out of control or out of breath. Every time I looked down, I was shocked to see my pace UNDER 7:00. I was seeing crazy numbers like 6:15, 6:28, 6:40, as the miles just kept disappearing.

Of course, at this point I am excited that I have been able to push myself to run 10 miles. When I get back to the car I take my final look…10 miles in 1:12:28. That’s a 7:14 pace! Was this a fluke? Break through? I don’t know and I don’t care. I did it and I felt great.

Now, I know this is just one run, but it was the last 10 miles of a 40 mile week for me. Anyone who has struggled with logging a lot of miles in one week understands the dread of having one last long run to do. Fun, it is not.

With all of the workouts we do, we always seem to remember the bad ones. The workouts that we suffered through. The next time you have a great workout, cherish it. You never know when it will happen again!