Making Great “Strides”

Yes, that’s a bad pun, but it’s true. In the past few weeks since I posted last, I’ve have been improving so much. I have had two long runs of 10 miles and felt great afterward, increasing my pace from 13:06 the first time to 12:00 yesterday. My ankles are pretty stiff this morning after my last long run, but that might be because I used a rototiller on Saturday that pretty much worked out my entire upper body. My hamstrings are a little sore as well, so my ankles could also have endured a little stress what with all the pulling back I did.

I’ve also been doing something that I never thought I would be doing before my first marathon. I am doing a little bit of “speed” work. It’s not true speedwork, but once a week I will take a run of 4-6 miles and push my pace a little bit. I’ve managed 6 miles on the trail at an 11:00 minute pace and on the treadmill I did 4 miles at 10:46. I never would have thought it possible. I know that’s still painfully slow for experienced runners, but it’s a huge accomplishment for me.

And I’ve quit wrapping my ankle.

This marathon thing might actually be a possibility for this (almost) 40-year-old fledgling runner.