Running Progress

I have to admit that after my half marathon at the end of last year, I was very put-off from running. I got sick to my stomach and had a horrible experience just finishing the race.

In the time after the half, I shifted my focus to strength training and worked on my cycling and swimming quite a bit. I did hit the treadmill for 2-5 miles a couple times a week to keep up my running fitness, but I never pushed myself during those runs. I'd keep it at 9-10 min/miles and use it as an aerobic warmup before lifting weights.

This week I finally felt ready to get back on the horse. Maybe it was the LA Marathon this Sunday that inspired me or just the fear of blowing up on the 10k leg of Wildflower. Probably both. So I went for a couple of runs on the road and I am very pleased with my speed and level of perceived effort.
I went out on Tuesday not paying especially close attention to my pace. I just ran as I felt comfortable. I did a 4 mile route, a there-and-back with a mostly up hill return. I ended up doing it in 33 minutes. That equates to a 8.5 min/mile. However, I didn't pay cloes attention to the clock when I left so I wasn't completely sure I had the time right. It didn't seem like I was going that fast.
So last night, I set up to do the same thing. This time I brough my ipod and used the timer function on there to set up some splits and get an accurate total time.
Sure enough this time making sure I wasn't going out to fast I started out nice and easy and hit 15 minutes at the half way point. the return was hilly so I ended up doing the whole thing in 32 mins. Not bad.