Why?

I have set some pretty ambitious fitness goals for myself this year. I was emailing with my sister in law once removed about training for our sophomore effort at the YWCA Triathlon(but first with a little Dam to Dam warm up for me). I was telling her about my running group and how just that week I had run 7 miles at 9:40 pace. She commented that she had been looking at her work out calendar and a year ago we ran 7 miles (while we were visiting Minnesota) at an 11 min pace. "What progress!" she said. And I thought "Gosh, I wish I could look back and see where I was last year." And the idea for this blog was born. Filling up the family blog with thoughts on my workouts didn't seem quite right, so I'm going to give it a try over here.

I ran Dam to Dam last year for the first time after promising myself for years I would give it a try. I trained by myself and mostly what I did was cover the distance necessary to finish the race. And I did finish it at an 11 minute pace - which included a bathroom break and a brutal final mile. This February I joined a running group at my gym and have been training for the 12.4 with them. It has been revelation - fartlek's, tempo runs, track work outs, hill workouts - all with company and at an intensity where I am seeing real progress.

Yesterday morning we met at 6:30am for the hardest workout I've ever done. First we ran 6 miles at race pace. Then we did 6 hill repeats. Then we jogged to the track where we did 2 x 800 meters (at 8:30 pace) then 2 x 400 (at 8:00 pace) then ran back to the trail head where we finished a 10.2 mile workout. (I know this because I am all geeked up on my Garmin running watch.) I was so tired when we were done and today my legs are very crunchy. But mostly I am still riding high on the fact that I actually did that workout and felt pretty strong doing it.

So tonight I am kicking around goal pace for the race, now just three weeks away. I'm not quite ready to commit....