Testing 1-2-3

Today my lovely babysitter Angela was flexible enough to change her scheduled time to come so that I could run outside. Because we all know that everything, everyday, revolves around "the run." So for me, that was running after Camille's pre-school drop off and during Daphne's morning nap. Originally my plan was to take Miss Daph to the gym and run there while Camille was at school, thus sacrificing the morning nap, and running on the DTM.

So, after a great inspiration last night, and several text messages, I got my run time set up and Angela's stay arranged.

I headed out into a lovely damp 52 degree day with little wind. From home I ran to the Prairie Path and headed west. On tap today was a 4 mile pace run. The trouble is that I don't know what my pace is. Before I got pregnant my half marathon pace was about a 7:30 mile. Now, I just don't know. I'd like to run a 7:45-7:50 but I don't know if that is realistic or not. So, these pace runs are more like a test than anything. Last week's pace run on the DTM was much harder than it should have been at a 7:47-7:53 pace. So I was a bit nervous heading out today.

First mile I felt like I was dying. I kept telling myself to run like I could hold it for 90 minutes plus. I wasn't doing this. It felt more like mile repeats. Gut busting, not at all comfortable. But I was unable to slow the turn-over. It was one of those runs that felt slow so I figured it was and figured I just sucked. So I kept pushing. I reached the mile marker and to my absolute amazement I ran a 7:20.

Thank God.

Ok. So now I could run a more realistic pace. One that I can really hold for 90 minutes plus. I got my newbie stuff out and now I can come back to being a real runner who knows how to pace and realize the difference, and importance, of hard and fast runs and slow recovery runs.

Miles 2, 3, and 4 were better. Much better. 7:50, 7:51, 7:48. Me. Pacer extraordinaire.

After I did a 2 mile cool down towards Camille's school and picked her up all stinky and super-duper psyched.