Today I headed out of the house for a morning run without too much confidence it would be a good one. I was well rested, but my stomach was upset (Ruthann (who felt the same way) and I referred to it as Pizza Roma-ria). It was also a tad bit breezy out as our fall weather is blowing the summer out. Not being a wind fan, I was a little discouraged with that (though looking forward to the cooler weather and rain that comes with fall in Portland). So I got going once I passed through the park and noticed, hey, I’m cruising along! At first I attributed it to the very slow run my running partner and I did on Sunday (more on that in a bit) and it may have had something to do with it both physically and mentally. But I figured it probably had more to do with the wind (which I had thought was at my back). It felt really good to be moving so well, especially after really slowing down on my runs in general lately.

When the half way point hit, I thought ok time to turn back into the wind. I also figured I would be sort of burned out after keeping my fast pace going for three miles or so. But I turned into the wind and it wasn’t there. So I happily kept on waiting for it to pick up any moment. Soon, about 3/4 through the 6.5 miles I was planning, I realized the wind was at my back. Huh? As it turns out I was running my fast pace INTO the wind and didn’t even realize it. That is when I knew this was going to be a great run. I spied a flag an confirmed the direction and quickly found myself home (with a break to talk to a neighbor I see on my route all the time). I came in at under nine minute miles for my pace, which is about 35 secs faster than I have been running lately. This just might inspire me to start up the speed work again!

So my run yesterday was a “S L O W” (as we kept IMing back and forth about it beforehand) run. Our goal was to do seven miles at about an 11 minute mile pace. It was hard to hold ourselves back but we did a really good job. Either the route was longer than seven miles or we went really slow at almost a 12 minute mile pace. It was a surprisingly good workout, but it makes sense when you consider your a taking more steps and pushing off more frequently. Plus it makes the next run seem super fast!