My first awesome run on #tayosroadtoparis
My run this morning was glorious! I ran with my running club and paced most of the way with marathon training partner, Gbemi. The first mile had a hill and we took the hill — it felt great at about 10 min mile. We then stopped to stretch and I led the stretch for everyone, which was a first for me. My initial goal was to run 5 miles as a recovery run but decided to do 6.5 miles so I get a full 10km run (I know its weird to switch between miles and km). Recovery runs should be run very slow so your muscles can recover or prepare for harder workouts. They also build your “slow twitch” muscles. If executed well you get stronger for your regular runs. Since I had run a 3.5 mile recovery run yesterday I really wanted to run like race day or as close as I could. We were doing a route similar to what we did last week and I wanted to do better than I did last week.
Towards the end of the 2nd mile I was right behind one of my heroes in our club — this guy, Alvin, runs at least 8 marathons a year (nuts). We paced right behind him for a while and at some point I looked at my watch to see I was going about 9.45min/mile, which is fast for me (and where I’d like to be normal), but my heart rate was only at 160! I was so excited because that meant I could push even more. I picked up the pace and we pushed past Alvin. It was also motivating that Gbemi was slightly ahead of me and pushing us further.
The 3rd mile was just great, I felt strong and we were consistently running in the 9.45–10.00 range. Definitely could see the effects of my strength training!! I ended up doing the 3rd mile at 9.52. After mile 3 it was cruise control for 4 and 5. Then entering the 6th mile I picked it up. I wanted to push and then at the end also run even faster. There was no stopping me. To make matters even better the weather was fantastic! I kept thinking this is Paris, lets do this! Below are my splits for the run.
Now, I need to improve on this experience. I need to run even better for 13 miles. It was my first week doing 6 days of training. It is 6 days a week training until race day from here out. I have to get even stronger, improve on my running posture, and cadence. There is still a long way to go but I am so pumped right now and excited knowing I got this!!
