Wednesday, September 26, 2007

My Old Standby Route

Today I did my old standby route, the route I have done off and on for years. I have used it to judge my readiness for 5k's in the past. It is 3.8 miles. If I can do this a few times before a 5k event, I am usually feeling pretty good! I may have mentioned that before this year, I have run very sporadically, never allowing much progress, and never staying with it for very long. By "judge my readiness" I totally mean, "get confident that I can run the whole thing." :D

I am really excited about where I am now (except for some whining that I could be further if my arches would cooperate.) I had been training for a FULL marathon in October but that has been altered to a HALF (yes, the feet) and I am doing a 10 mile race this Sunday. Hardly the same as "I hope I can run the entire 5K."


So I decided to run this route and see where I am. Thank goodness I wasn't disappointed. I can imagine all this buildup to find out I'm slower or something. I can remember past runs where I was doing good to make it to the 2 mile marker. Others, that the hill from 2 - 2.7 did me in. Today, I just ran it with confidence that I could do it, no games of "to the next corner," "to the next light pole".....


3.8 miles ~ 44:37 ~ 11:38 pace. I have used Favorite Run for quite a long time so I think I can say with pretty good confidence that my previous best for this route was 46:27.

Another milestone I noticed is that since the "onset of planned, regular running" on May 25th, I have surpassed the 300 mile mark. Having a schedule has done wonders for me!!

Tomorrow, I am visiting a sports PT to see what he thinks about my dumb feet. Wish me luck.

23 comments:

J~Mom said...

YEAH!!! What a fantastic run!!! I can't wait to hear what the PT says. Man, these PT guys make more money off of us runners. :>)

ws said...

Great job on the run...a PR by almost 2 minutes, that's awesome.
A 10 mile race sounds fun - far more interesting than an 11 mile training run.

I hope you get a good diagnosis and everything gets better after visiting the PT.

Kent said...

Hey nothing like smoking a milestone or benchmark training run to lighten the spirits! It shows how far you've come and how much good those 300 miles have done. You are definitely going to have give up that non-runner title soon.

Good luck at the doc.

Marcy said...

Awesome job Nancy!!! WHOOOO HOOOOO!!

Good luck with the PT man. Hopefully he will be hot AND rubs your feet for you :P

Jess said...

I know what ya mean about the "standby" route. I have a loop that starts practically right outside my door and it's exactly 3 miles. It's my favorite little loop because I know it like the back of my hand.

Wes said...

Bah! Running an entire race is over rated. I've only run one race all the way through, and I didn't even PR :-) Stick with it! You will be awesome on your 10 miler and half mary!

Nitmos said...

Thanks for stopping by and the encouragement.

I also like going back to familiar routes from time to time. You can really judge how much better you are doing in realtion to a previous run.

Keep it up!

Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

Hey Nancy, Good job...I got a great email from Meghan about my arch issues...I will send it over to you!

Non-Runner Nancy said...

Did someone say on-line poker? I'm in! :)

LOLLOL and yes I did... I have a billion of free chips in PartyPoker accounts... I played real games But we also ran a lot of games on the free sites to practice our game.

U ever play on Party Poker site??

Unknown said...

Nice job with the PR on your old route! Sounds like progress to me.

Good luck with the PT. Hopefully he has some useful ideas.

Nancy said...

Bob - We DO have Party Poker accounts, although I haven't been on there in ages. So many hobbies, so little time. Too bad some of us have jobs!! :)

I like the real thing too! We have poker night with friends, about once a month in summer, maybe more often through the winter. We also try to get to Vegas and play. Love, love, love it. (Texas Hold'em)

Thanks for the email. Doesn't sound like my problem is PF. More later.

Nat said...

God I so hear you onthe run. Great job with it and good luck on the 10 miler. :)

I am dumb. PT is physiotherapist right?

Bill Carter said...

Congrats Nancy!
Isn't it about time you got that "Non-Runner" thing off of your blog. You are a runner just like the rest of us and I would be damn glad to have you on my team. You are going to absolutely destroy that 1/2.
Best of luck

David H. said...

Congrats on your progress so far!

Andria said...

Woah! You blew your old time out of the water, achy feet and all! You are awesome! Hope things go well with the doctor. Stupid feet.

psbowe said...

Good luck on the PT visit. Achy feet isn't good.

zanne said...

schedules are magic things! i love a schedule. nice work on your new standby route pr! it's always so satisfying to reach certain benchmarks, and know that progress is being made!

i loved your bondi band in one of your pictures - i went to the site & ordered a bunch. i'm a fan of buffs, but you can get 5 bondi bands for a couple bucks more than 1 buff! can't wait till they arrive. will have to do a comparison test.

Pokey said...

How funny Nancy....I happen to use your same old metric of *readiness*, which is "hope like heck I can just finish!!!" ;)

Your run was very inspiring....goes to show what some positive mental thoughts and a "can do" attitude can do for us!

You are going to ROCK the 13.1!! Way to go!

Jamie said...

Great job! A PR is so exciting. I love when you run an old route and can really see how far you have come.
Good luck at the doctor...I hope it's nothing but good news.

Michelle said...

Great job on the PR, Nancy!!

You got to 300 miles a lot faster than I did!!! ;-)

Database Diva said...

Congratulations on the PR for your standby route and getting to 300 miles. Consistency works wonders if you want to go faster or longer. In fact, it will even help you do both. I took 9 minutes off my 5K time by marathon training. Imagine what I could do if I did speedwork. We will have to imagine it, because I'm not going to do it :D I hope the physical therapist has something helpful for your feet. Good luck in your race this weekend!

J said...

You seemed to have learned a lesson that I have just recently learned. If you run consistently (not on and off) you actually DO get better! Wow! What a revelation for me. Now that I have improved, I just need to make sure I stick with it...

RunToTheFinish said...

Fun! I totally do the same thing... in all honesty you know you can do it, but it's overcoming the doubt that really helps make it all feel like it's going to be a-ok.

Gotta Run..... said...

Having a plan and race goal is the ONLY way that I have stayed on track. It is key for me!!

SO glad you had the results on your run that you were loom=king for. The mental drive will keep you focused to reaching even more goals in the future.

Way to GO!!!