It's been an interesting year so far. I've ran a lot of easy miles and my legs and low effort aerobic fitness has been as good as ever. I've had hardly any tendonitis or inflammation anywhere and it seems like I've been recovering faster than ever.
the only problem has been that I couldn't quite find that next gear. I could jog around at 8 minute pace all day... I could go out for a 13 mile 7:30 pace run and it felt relatively easy. But as soon as I tried to run anything faster than 7:15 pace I started to feel like crap. My legs didn't want to turn over and things like my back, neck, shoulders, and stomach would start to hurt to the point where I could never really get my HR up above the mid-160s.
The last couple weeks things have started to shift and today I finally started to actually feel fit. I wanted to build on last Tuesday's 7 mile run at 7 min pace so exactly 1 week later I went for 8 miles.
I started off relaxed but by the 1/2 mile point I was getting locked in and hit the first mile at 7:05. Everything after that was sub 7. 6:55; 6:52; 6:52; 6:49; 6:54; 6:45; 6:32. I was finding the extra gear climbing hills and was able to stay relaxed. I pushed a bit at the end but nothing hurt and I even hit full sprint for the last 50 meters.
I finished up with 8 miles in 54:49 (6:50 pace). It was 10 seconds faster per mile than a week ago and actually felt easier. This pretty much puts me close to my peak performances 2 years ago and closer in line to where I was at this point last year.
It definitely feels good to have tangible progression in performance again and I'm eager to see what I can accomplish with a 6-8 more weeks of solid training.
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