Fitness is indescribable.

The crappy part about a Friday night race, is you come home, and you're still 'wired' from the race and the post race festivities, but you know you gotta get up at 4:20 the next morning for the Saturday long run. Fosrtunately, we're in recovery week, so tomorrow's only 16 instead of 24 miles. A whole Hour and 10 minutes less.

The title to this post is silly. However I don't know how to ex pres the right title. I thought about the word Magical, Awesome, So Cool, great, crazy... but none seemed to fit the bill, so really it's indescribable.

2 years ago I ran the Zilker relays. (10 miles, between 4 people running 2.5 miles each) I had been running for 1 year, and when i crossed the finish line, I had run two and a half miles in 15:32 and had given it everything I had. And so what's 'indescribable' is the feeling you get. You finish, you're super proud of your time, and you think to yourself: Wow, i gave that every single ounce of energy I had. There is no way in the world I could ever run this any faster. That was my absolute best.

My 1 year anniversary of running had just passed, and I think I was around the 600 mile mark for total running. Now, I'm sitting a almost 4,000 miles logged, including 1500+ miles of base building over the 5 miles of intense base building, a few (failed) marathons and other races under my belt.
My team and I decided that we would not go 'all out' today and risk any silly injury, or kill ourselves, as our goal is December 7 in California. We wanted to run a good time, but not kill ourselves, and that's exactly what I did. (Not sure if they did that too, but I stayed true to it).

Race time was at 6:30. Met up with Ken at 5:15pm and ran the course to get acquainted. Jeez Louise is it hot at at 5:15pm. Ugh. And i got a nasty side stitch at mile 2 that literally made me walk the last couple hundred yards. Not encouraging. I sat down, stopped drinking and just relaxed. About 35 minutes before the start a bunch of us took off for another lap around the course, which was a good thing. These days 5 miles is a much better warm up distance than just 2.5!

anyway, I'll cut to the chase... Ken and i mapped out the 1/4 mile and 1/2 mile spots on the course. I wanted to know where these were, so I wouldn't go out way too fast or way too slow. HI clokced in at the half mile: 3:01 (6:02 pace). Too fast, as I had planned on a 6:20-6:30mile, but I'll take it as I'm actually feeling really good, and hadn't gone over what I would call 70% effort. I did consciously slow down '1 click' as I knew I didn't want to keep that pace, and that's apparently not what my rabbits thought, as Damon, Ramon, and others slowly drifted away. Charles was still ahead to about 20 yards away (up a bit from the 10 yards he had from the very start, so he became my sole rabbit). I kept my pace, clocking in at around a 6:10 for mile 1. Fine with me as I'm really not running for time, and instead running on 'feel'. 70%-80% of effort is good, anything over 80% is bad.

Mile two included 2 climbs. The first is a nice little climb inside the nature center where I could sense people around and ahead of me were clearly laboring more than I was. (Have I mentioned i love hills?) On all our runs, I make it a point to keep pace on hills, and so this one is easy. I kinda of wanted to give it my all at the top of the Nature Center Climb, but... this race is not my goal, and I quickly tell myself i don't need a hamstring pull, calf strains, or any other silly injury. Especially since i have a long weekend ahead of me, and then hill training begins!

Mile 2 hits, didn't check on time, but now all we have was a downhill 1/2 mile to the finish. I kept my stride at a comfortable level, keeping the same rabbits ahead of me, and making sure I'm at 70-80% of effort. I'm actually feeling great. It's weird to describe, but I'll try... so here goes:

Sure, I'm moving at a decent clip, but in no way am I laboring, and I'm thinking... "you know, this is probably close to the time I had 2 years ago..."

Eventually, i turn the last corner and look down at my watch and look at the clock above the finish line. I realize I've got a shot at beating my record on this course. So I picked up my pace, to a "perfect form" stride out, but not full out stride out, just one of those "push down on the gas pedal a bit" type of pickups, and I run in with a time of right around 5:26 or so, 5 seconds faster than 2 years ago!

Am I super proud of my time? no, not really.
Am I happy? HELL YEAH! I didn't ever take it over 80% of effort and I cruised in for a faster time than 2 years ago!

This is why Fitness is so cool/magical/indescribable! two years ago, I finished and I wanted to crawl into a gutter and die. This year, I finished... sure I was winded, but I knew I had TONS in the tank, and was proud I took it easy yet still beat my time! Anyway, if you're a runner, you know how that feels... You never think you could possibly get faster, but then, a couple seasons later, you beat that seemilgy unbeatable time! t's such an indescribable feeling to think that you are soooo much better than just 2 years ago! (it's what keeps us coming back, right!?)

The coolest part is that two years ago, 5 months later I would go on to get so so close to my Boston qualifer time after this 'Herculean' effort to get a 15:32.
So this makes me feel really REALLY good with 4 months of speed work, hills, and a ton of "just get stronger" workouts left!

Ok, it's 10:20, and hopefully this typing has made me tired enough to fall asleep soon. Tomorrow's going to be a loooong day with running then Texas football at 6pm, and most importnantly tailgating starts at 1pm!