So a funny thing happened last night. I went out and ran, and turned all the audio announcements concerning pace and distance off on my Nike+ App. Every 5 minutes I would get an announcement about how many minutes I had run, but I had no idea how far I had gone, or at what pace I was going. Since I was finishing week 7 of couch to 5K, I plugged in 25 minutes as my goal time.
It didn't seem as hot last night as it did on Tuesday when I ran. I started out on the slow side. I didn't want to burn out too quickly and struggle in the final minutes. After about 10 minutes, I still felt great. I wasn't breathing hard, I was running very smoothly and relaxed. So I picked up my pace a bit. Still felt good, breathing a little harder, but far from huffing and puffing. My knees felt good, good music was playing through my earphones and I was running comfortably. My spirit was good, my energy level felt good and I had about 10 minutes to go.
I run the same loop most nights I run, so I have some distance markers in my head to approximate how far I had gone. I didn't want to spend the last 10 minutes calculating in my head how far I thought I had gone and how far I could go if I sped up. So I deviated from my usual course and ran past the turn back into my neighborhood. Ran passed an older man who was also running. He gave me a little wave and I smiled back. With about 5 minutes left, I turned around and headed back towards my house. The nice Nike+ voice came on and said I had almost reached my goal of 25 minutes. I think I had about 2 minutes left at this point. I contemplated sprinting the last two minutes, but I resisted that urge and kept going at a comfortable pace. Before I knew it, the announcement that I completed 25 minutes was going off.
I slowed down to a walk to start my cool down, and quickly unlocked my phone to see how far I had gone. I was pleasantly surprised to see I did 2.17 miles. The other night, when I focused on my pace I managed to get in only 2 miles. The big difference was that I felt very tense during my last run because I was so focused on dialing back my speed. I wasn't running smoothly.
One other thing I noticed was my pace. Nike+ plots your pace throughout the run. Normally when I run, I have a lot of peaks and valleys. By running at my own comfortable pace, I was able to keep things much more steady and even. And the other nice thing I noticed was that my 2nd mile was actually run about 20 seconds quicker than my first mile.
At the end of the run I felt great. I felt like I could have run another mile easily, but I didn't. I did my 5 minute walk to cool down, then stretched out a little before heading into the house. That's what the sweat really started pouring. I didn't feel like it was super hot while I was running, but once I stopped,I realized I was soaked in sweat. Felt really good and energized after my shower. Unlike most nights where I collapse onto the sofa and fight to keep my eyes open :-).
