Strong

Today we ran 6 miles with 5 X 20 second strides.

I LOVE running 6 miles. The first two miles are always painful for me, but when I hit that 2 mile mark, I feel great. All the kinks and soreness and aches disappear and I feel strong.

And strong is how I felt today at mile 5, running at a much faster pace than I usually do just because I felt great. I am definitely understanding a runner's insanity to push herself and sweat like crazy because the reward is that you are making your body and mind strong. I just feel healthy. Which is as it should be. I'm only 32 after all. In the prime of my life. I might as well make my body the best it can be by getting into shape.

The strides, by the way, were super fun. Basically, you pick up your pace and stretch out your legs - which makes you run fast. But it's not a sprint...just opening up your stride and taking advantage of leg length. I did this instinctively when I ran the 800 in middle school. I remember feeling at an advantage over the other runners because my legs seemed longer. The strides today were part of just building our endurance. Can't want for the next ones.

On Thursday, our weekday runs start getting longer. That means, we will be meeting at 5:15 instead of 5:30. Yikes. I am NOT looking forward to that. I have a hard time being there by 5:30 (I'm usually 1 or 2 minutes late). 5:15 really will be difficult. But I think I can handle it.

We have 2 more weeks of our "building" phase. Then on August 30th, we start the "strength" phase of our training. This will involve more track time and speed during the week, not to mention hills, to build our endurance even more and make us ready for the rigors of a race.

I love that I'm still enthused about all this!