New Mile PR!!!!

My new mile Personal Record is....

7:25!!!!!

I was secretly hoping for sub-8:00 mile. So, WOW! I didn't realize I had it in me!

Anyhow, it was a beautiful morning for running. Overcast skies. 64 degrees. A small breeze every so often to blow the chillier air around.

I left the house a little before 6am and jogged up to the high school track. 11:20/mile pace with average HR at 144. Nice and easy.

When I arrived at the track I stretched a bit and tried to calm my nerves. I don't know why I was so darn nervous. It wasn't really a race (OK...it was a race against time if not against other runners). I have run over 600 miles so far this year - what's the big deal about running ONE?? OK, so its a little faster - so what!!!!

Regardless, I was nervous about how to pace myself. Would I totally lose steam at the end? Would I not run fast enough and have too much left in the tank at the end?

On your marks; get set; GO! Off I went. Not sprinting, but definitely faster than I am used to running.

As I got going around the first turn, my legs felt really heavy. I thought that the 1.6 mile jog up to the track would get me warmed up and ready for this, but I guess it wasn't enough. I'm pretty sure this was my body telling me that I need to stretch more. That and running faster more often will most likely get my legs used to this.

First lap - 1:48. Avg HR was 161 (I found out later when I looked in the log file in my HRM), however, my HR was up at 180 when I finished the first lap.

As I started lap number 2, I started calculating my pace over a full mile based on the first lap. 7:12 - yikes! That's a bit too fast. Plus my HR being at 180 is probably a bit too high for this early into the run. I started to slow it down a bit - just a tad. I seemed to be getting in a pretty good rhythm, though, so I did not want to break my stride too much. Coming around the last turn of the second lap, I could feel that my breathing was very heavy, but in a good rhythm. I started to get flashbacks of when I tried to run in Middle School or High School - that heavy breathing would have a strong wheeze at the end of each breath. It was a pleasant sound to me to hear my heavy breathing with no wheezing (I'm sure my heavy breathing was NOT a pleasant sound for others at the track...it's all relative).

Second lap - 1:57. Avg HR was 182. I felt pretty good at this point and although I was already breathing hard, I knew I could continue at this pace and finish it out.

Third lap - 1:52. Avg HR was 184. At this point I was starting to get tired, but I knew that I only had one more lap to go. I could hear the "last lap bell" ringing in the back of my head! Time to push a bit more, dig in a bit deeper and finish this thing out strong.

Fourth lap - 1:48. Avg HR was 189. (Um, Mike - based on your age, your Max HR should be 186...way to really push your limits here!). As you can see by the stats, I finished this thing strong! Fourth lap was the same blazing speed (again...it's all relative - watch the Olympics next week to see real "blazing speed") that I ran the first lap with. My heart rate during those last two minutes was higher than what my maximum heart rate should be - this is probably fine for a short burst of time, but not good if I was going to try to run the entire 5K at this pace.

I took a look at my watch for the total time - 7:25. I was in disbelief. I did not think I could run a sub-7:30 mile (after the intervals workout I had earlier in the week, I was starting to doubt a sub-8:00 mile).

I walked around the track to cool down - a nice big smile on my face. The jog back home was sweet - enjoying the beautiful morning and the awesome feat I just accomplished.