Our last run of 2011

We logged our last run of 2011 this morning.  5 miles in 59:18, done and done.  After everyone run, I log my time into dailymile.com and then start thinking about how I felt during the run.

Breathing was good, no problems with the asthma.  I even sang a song from Sound of Music during our run (whatever gets me through it).  Legs felt tired at first, strong for the majority and then completely weak at the end.  Probably from the inconsistent running this whole week and the last longer run we completed was 2 weeks ago. 

Basically I start to nit pick and ever so often a sense of doubt starts to creep its way in and I begin to question my successes. 

I should have pushed myself more during mile 2 and mile 3.  Both came in at 12:14 and 12:13 min/mile paces…what the heck?  Could I have hung on for another 1/2 mile?  How the heck am I going to run 6.2 miles in 3 weeks? 

So to give myself a mental pat on the back I started looking back on our runs from the beginning of 2011. 

• The first run of the year was on 1/1/2011 and I did it solo…1 mile at a sub 12:00 min/mile pace.  1 mile…and today I did 5.
• Our 2 mile runs were ranging anywhere from a 12:00 min/mile pace to a 13:00 min/mile pace…now this distance is always run at a sub 12/min pace.
• The longest we ran at the beginning of the year was 3.1 miles in 40:01 and it was a mixture of running/walking…today’s run, although rough, was ran the whole way.

I started to feel better about my progress, because that’s exactly what it is…PROGRESS.

I’m not a natural runner so things are going to take longer for me to achieve, but I have made improvements and become stronger.  And there is always this…