Today I headed out on my typical 10k course, basically the same route I have been doing a lot lately. Since I rededicated myself to running regularly about three weeks ago I think I have run this route every time but once. One nice thing about doing your running in this manner is it really allows you to judge improvements. So my mini-goal as of late has been to speed up my times. I have been fighting a cold/flu for the last week or so but I have still been able to keep up with running albeit slow runs of greater than 10 min miles. So my mini-goal should be attainable! Not only have I increased my general fitness, but I have also beaten this bug. So on Thursday when I finally topped the 10 min mile mark for an average pace I was pretty excited and figured I was on my way. But then the next day (yesterday) I was back over 10 min miles, my excuse de jour is that I rolled my ankle in the middle of the run. The rolled ankle was not bad enough that I had to hobble home, my rubber ankle rebounded pretty quickly and I was able to walk it off. But I do think that slowed me down a bit as I was trying to be careful.

As a side note I have been experiencing what I think is probably an over-training issue with my foot. Could also have something to do with the new shoes (more than likely a combo). I have some pain on the top of my foot right in the area of the top of my shoe tongue. I really only feel it when I first get started and then it seems to go away. I loosened my laces a bit today and I think that might have actually helped but I still felt the ache for the first mile or so. It seems to be lessened if I focus on a mid-strike and more pronounced if I am hitting with ball of my foot. Hills also seem to irritate this pain a bit. But like I said after a mile or so the pain seems to be gone.

So today I struck out for run #3 in a row. What was different today? I didn’t have the ankle as an excuse, it felt fine (not even a twinge). The top of my foot still experienced pain for the first mile, but that went away as I got going. So, back to the difference (enough whining), I decided early in my run to start pushing myself. It wasn’t quite a tempo run, but I refused to let myself take it easy. My runs have been coming easier and easier which is nice, but today I pushed myself back into that point of exertion similar to how things felt when I was starting out again. I kept reminding myself to go and not take it easy. Again, this was by no means a race pace, but I felt myself working hard throughout the run. And that was the difference. These past three weeks I was just happy to be running regularly again. Today I got passed that and into a training mindset. Well not completely, but I wanted to work today and it paid off. After four miles I was pretty sure I was going to break a 10 min mile average as I was three mins up. I kept pushing and was soon four mins ahead. By the time I finished my average pace was 9:17. Pretty happy with that! Hopefully I will keep that work ethic up or at least on quality run days.

My PR for a 10k is 49:00, today I hit 10k at around 56 mins. Not to bad and plenty of room for improvement.