Valentines, Waffles and 4 Miles

Date: 02/14/12

Route: Treadmill
Distance: 4 Miles
Pace: 9:37 mile

Song That Started Me Off: “Hello” by Martin Solveig

Song That Brought Me Home: “What is Love?” By Haddaway

So for my amazingly romantic Valentines Day evening, I went to the gym. I would call that lame, but The Wife and I are celebrating our V-Day on Friday night. Life with a toddler works off of childcare availability, not strictly off the calendar.  

The gym was surprisingly full, but I was there earlier then normal, at about 7:45pm. Usually I am one of those people that show up when everyone else is leaving, around 9:30-10pm. There were even some couples there together…nothing like sweating together to make a relationship grow. I suppose it is better then Waffle House!

One of my goals for 21012, and honestly the one I think will be the toughest, is to run a 5K in under 9 minutes a mile. My PR was last year at the Jamesers 5K, where I ran 9:15 per mile. So some of my treadmill running has been focused on 4 mile runs, as I figure that will make the 5K's more tolerable. I also have been trying to run negative splits, and I was able to accomplish that tonight as well. 

The run was proceeding very well until that last half mile. I suppose that this is how you know you are pushing your body a bit, buy the fact that it protests that last little bit. I really had to focus on my breathing the last half mile. Personally, if my breathing rhythm falls apart my body quickly follows. So I was able to hold it together, and finished with a 4 mile pace of 9:37 per mile. See empirical proof below.

With the Corktown Races here in about a moth, I am feeling pretty good about matching my PR from last year, which is my goal for this race.  Hopefully as I keep training, I can start running some practice runs under 9 a mile. How is your spring race training going?