I ran 7 miles this morning in 45:16. I got out the door later than planned and as a result I decided to run a little faster so that I wouldn't miss any of general conference. I didn't want to risk hurting myself, but recently I have felt like the pain I have been feeling is not muscular, but maybe nerve related and as a result I felt like I was not taking too large of a risk by running a little faster. What I did not realize was how fast I would naturally start to run without really trying to run fast.
I started the run, and I figured that if I started below 7:30 for the first mile I could then speed up to sub 7:00 pace, maybe even 6:30-6:40. Still worried about potential injury I did not feel comfortable going faster than that. I ran the first mile in about 7:20, and a little over a minute later when I hit the trail (where there are markers every quarter mile) I started timing my splits. I felt like I was running around 6:40 pace, maybe a little faster, so I was rather surprised when I hit the half mile mark in 3:05. The pace felt so easy that I decided to just keep going. The next half mile was 3:00, followed by 2:53 and 2:51 for the next two half mile segments after which the trail ends (so, 6:05 and 5:44 mile splits, 11:49 for 2 miles). I felt like I was maxing out aerobically at about 5:40 mile pace, which is unsurprising considering my training (or lack thereof), but I was happy that the effort did not feel too taxing from a muscular standpoint.
After using the port-o-potty nearby I ran a little extra until I hit my turn around, came back, and started heading back on the trail towards home. On the way back I was running slightly uphill (vs. slightly downhill on the way out) and I ran splits of 1:29, 2:51, 1:26 (5:46 mile), followed by 2:48, and 2:47 splits (5:35 mile, 11:21 for 2 miles). I definitely felt like I was going anaerobic near the end of the second mile when I was running up a steeper uphill grade and I was going faster than I had run early on. Overall, running hard today felt really good. It has been a while since I have run hard, and I was missing it (no hard runs since I got mono in July). To top things off, my back was feeling better today than any other day this week, and the different focus during the run shifted my focus away from my back and I was able to ignore things for all but the first mile of the run.
On a side note, I figured it would be good to post a few more pictures of my little people.
Anita holding baby Kamran
Anita holding Kamran #2 (she loves holding him, it is very cute)
Kamran doing what he does best, sleep!
Kamran smiling in his sleep while wearing the blanket that Grandma McClellan made for him
Shayon taking a nap on the living room floor
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