my new gig

for better or worse, the 5am thursday runs with the big dogs are my new gig. as are 5am track workouts with coach on tuesdays ...

so here it is - big dog run day again (so soon? seems like just yesterday i was killing myself to keep up). major improvments today: i could actually eek out a couple of sentences ... last week i was just struggling to breathe - speaking was not an option.

there were only 6 of us today. us - good god, i'm one of them now. i stayed with them (for the most part) for the first 5.5 miles ... was so excited about 25 minutes in when they head to the park & i think we are going to stop for h20 - i start to veer ever so slightly over towards fountain when much to my dismay, they keep going -- and we're running, we're running ... right through hospital parking lot which i thought was convenienent - just in case.

i really was immensly proud of myself for keeping up ... even when i was bringin' up the rear, the pack was still essentially, all together - so it wasn't as demoralizing as it was last week when i could barely see them. although there was a definite point when they kicked it in & i fell way back -- with little over a mile to go ...

during this last leg, i was simultaneously amazed & alarmed by heartrate - which was holding steady at 170 (my max during field test is 173) ... my thoughts went from: i am moments away from collapsing, should i warn coach; to - hey, i can maintain 170 way longer than i thought. cool.

the best part is this - we ran faster & farther than last week. didn't even feel like it. i'm not saying it was a walk in the park, but collapsing at any moment didn't strike me as a viable (i.e more preferable - since i wouldn't actually be running if i was face down in the pavement) alternative this time around. now that's progress.


Total time and distance was 7.04 in 58:01 versus 7.02 in 58:35 last week. beauty.