Improvement

Today, I went to the gym for my 5 mile run and did 5 X 800 repeats on the treadmill. I warmed up for a mile at a 10:40 pace (treadmill on 1% grade) and did the repeats at 8:40 with 1/4 mile rest in between. Because of time constraints, my cooldown was only 1/2 mile. I felt great at the end. I could have done more. I finished the 5 miles in exactly 50 minutes.

Out of curiosity, I went back through my training journal and found the following post from December 2006:

"I went to bed last night determined to wake up early and run 5 miles. I haven't finished a run successfully all week and if I didn't do it early this morning, it wasn't going to happen at all. I'm having my hair colored at 11 this morning and I'm not going to run after it and waste all that money!

I stressed and planned the run all night, finally deciding to just start out slow and stay slow and steady throughout. My aim was to maintain 11 minute miles and try not to go over. My quads and hamstrings are still sore from Tuesday's workout and Wednesday's hill repeats. I wanted to finish this run feeling strong. I ended up doing 5.5 miles in 58.31 minutes. My Garmin wasn't charged this morning so I used the Timex Ironman and didn't stop the watch when I stopped to stretch at 1 mile and fooled around with the ipod another time. With 1 mile to go, I felt pretty good and decided to throw in some fartleks. It really felt good to go fast those few intervals and I was wishing it was a speed that I could actually maintain."

Thank goodness for training journals! I feel like I am improving, but here is the actual proof. My very own positive feedback -- from myself!