Run to 30

A week or so ago I was out on a run and I decided to put a praise & worship channel on through Pandora because I was in the mood for churchy stuff.  Then a funny thing happened.  The song In Christ Alone started playing and I started running faster.  The song has powerful lyrics and music that builds up as it moves forward, and that’s exactly the type of music you want while running.  Since then I’ve gone on a few more runs where I play that station more, and I’ve been running better than ever before.  To me, that means that I’m being helped along.  Here are some of the lyrics to the song:

In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all –
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

Anyway, I’ve started training to run the Chicago Lung Run 10k again.  I ran this race in 2011 and finished near the very end of the pack (I was the second to last male to finish).  Hopefully I’ll be able to do better this time around.  The plan is to follow Hal Higdon’s Novice 10k plan and update my progress here every week.  So here is a brief summary of my runs from this week.

Tuesday – I ran 2.85 miles, which is more than the plan called for but the run was going well.  My average pace was 12:20, but my goal for the run was to break a 10 minute mile.  I did it.  My first mile on the run was 9:29, which is a personal record.

Thursday – I didn’t run as scheduled because my legs weren’t recovered enough on Thursday morning and the rest of the day was occupied by 4th of July festivities.  Instead I ran on Friday morning, and made it 2.03 miles at an average pace of 11:55.  My goal for the run was to run for 15 minutes without having to take a break and walk.  I ended up running for over 20 minutes straight – almost the entire run!

Sunday – My goal was to incorporate my earlier achievements from the week into my “long” run, by going for 20 minutes straight before walking.  It was successful and I ran for 25 minutes before slowing to a walk for a 2 minute break.  The run ended up a little shorter than I thought it was because of a gps malfunction that made me think I had gone further than I actually had (apparently Runkeeper thought I could run at a two minute mile pace for a while!  too bad I had to correct it…).  The end result was 2.89 miles with a 12:16 pace.

One of the highlights of my runs the last couple weeks was these flowers:

Today I had my long run for the week.  According to my training plan, I had to run 3 miles today, and I made it.  That’s now the longest I’ve run in a single session.  I had planned on running all the way from home to an intersection about a mile and a half away, but only made it 1.25 miles before being stopped by this guy.  Seriously, couldn’t the engineer see I was running and stop for me?  Oh well.  Lately I had been switching to walking for a break after the first mile but made it further this time.  After the train passed, I resumed my run and turned around at the intersection.  The way home was a little easier as the sun was to my back, but I still ended up going slower the second mile than the first.

The first mile time was great; I finished it in 10:32, which is now my personal best for a single mile.  The second mile time was 13:28, and the third was 13:56.  For a little bit during the third mile I pushed myself harder and ran at a pace of between 8-10 minutes for about a quarter mile.  It sure felt like I was going even faster than that!

This now wraps up the month of July.  During the month, I was able to run a total of 23.19 miles, increased my average pace from about 15 minutes/mile at the beginning of the month to 12:41 today, and my fastest single mile from 13:42 to 10:32.  I think it was a pretty good month!

This also wraps up the first week of my training plan for the 10k.  It’s a great feeling to have survived one week, but there’s seven left in the schedule.  Next Sunday I get to increase my distance on the “long run” to 3.5 miles.

It’s getting easier.  Yesterday my 10k training sent me on a 2 mile run.  A few weeks ago I would’ve cringed at the thought, and then would have proceeded to huff and puff like a hufflepuff through the whole run.  This time, I actually looked forward to a shorter run than I’d been doing the last few times, and didn’t have too much trouble throughout.  That said, I did find the first few blocks to be rather brutal on my legs but I attribute that more to the fact that I haven’t gotten used to getting up in the morning to run yet.

As for times, I took a little slower pace in the beginning and finished the first mile in 11:44 (which, for the record, is immensely better than I did just a week earlier when I ran a mile in 13:26).  The second mile was 13:56, for a total time of 25:51.  Today I am “resting” before a 3 mile run tomorrow.  I’ve actually decided that “resting” means doing a bunch of crunches to try to get myself in better shape overall, and that’s been going pretty well too.  We’ll see how things turn out in a couple months.

I also discovered today that there is a Packers 5k.  That is totally going on my list of must runs for next year.  The run starts on Lombardi Ave (the road outside Lambeau Field), goes through some of the neighborhood, and culminates in a run through the player’s tunnel and around the field inside the stadium.  It would be so fun to run through the tunnel and inside the great bowl!

Photo credit:  Easy Run by Banalities