The plan as of Thursday was to run 7 miles today, and I felt good enough to run the full distance. The only problem was that I had limited time after Kimia got her run done because we had to go to a baptism. So, instead of running less I just ran the mileage faster. I ran the 7 miles in 40:49 (about 5:50 average), running the downhill second half in 19:59 (5:42 pace). My legs felt very good at that pace, as I did not feel like it took much muscular effort to do so. My problem is that I am out of shape (I have not even run a full mile in under 6:00 pace in over 2 months, and I ran all 7 that fast today), and I couldn't get my breathing under control for long periods of time. It is much harder to keep my airways open and relaxed when I am working hard. The end result was that I had to work pretty hard to run sub 6:00 pace, even though my legs did not feel stressed (other than feeling oxygen deprived). It felt good to work a little harder, although I suspect that breathing hard may not be the best as I feel like my airways close off a bit more after I run hard, almost as if my throat is irritated and tightens up in protest. |