I am fit.. there's no doubt about it

You know, people will come up to me and say: "you're really running well" or some variation of it. I'll thank them and usually downplay it. However, today, in the late miles of our run, it really struck home that I am DAMN FIT. Granted, everything is relative, and I'm not going to go run a sub 3 hour marathon in December, but I'm in better shape than I've ever been in my life, and for the first time, I can even peek over the Dec 7th wall, and start imagining what's next.

This is my blog, and today I'm showing off. I'm doing it, because today it REALLY hit home. I am oooooozing confidence today. HOWEVER, I DO know the difference between getting cocky and careless, AND feeling strong, and riding the confidence wave. I've also learned THE HARD WAY (3 times) to always respect the distance, so I'm not going to screw things up.

Last week I ran a Marathon. A trail marathon for that matter. I didn't race it, but I ran a healthy pace for trail running. I finished 15th out of 400+ starters and 3rd in my Age Group even though I stopped almost 20-25 times to take pictures, drop off clothes, refill my water bottle, take in the amazing views, and even poop. ; )

This week I felt a little sluggish, but the legs kept getting better and better as the week progressed. I skipped my Thursday workout because I preferred to be strong today, by giving my legs some more recovery time. After all, 26.2 miles is 26.2 miles no matter how you slice it.

Which brings us to today...

Today we ran the Soul Buster Maker. My coach calls it Buster, I prefer to keep things positive and learn from my runs, so I'm calling it Soul Maker.

A 22 mile (that ended up being 23.5 miles) run. We ran a warm up mile-and-a-half (or so) to a Track. We then ran an ALL OUT mile. "As hard as you can go." I'm somewhat disappointed with my performance as I think I could have shaved 12 seconds off my 5:26.
3 seconds per lap should be doable, and that's the minimum improvement I'm thinking of getting for our revisit of this run later on. Incidentally, 5:32 was what I ran at the Congress Avenue Mile 2 years ago on a downhill course, so I'm happy with 5:26, but I know I have sub 5:14 in me for sure.

We then left the track and ran the rest of our 23.5 mile run. The all out track mile playing the role of fatiguing our legs to simulate tiredness at the end of a marathon. We wound our way down from Run Tex arboretum to downtown, then at mile 15, we ran 4 miles of hills in Zilker Heights. Then back down to Barton Springs road and over to Rogue. So a pretty challenging 13.5 miles.
Larry and I picked up the pace considerably in the hills, and he was clocking us cranking out 7:35 or lower on those miles. He then said we were holding 7 or below for much of the rest of the run. (My Marathon Goal Pace is 7:15) I'm awaiting his Garmin's report and will post those last 8 miles when he gets them to me. All I know is we ran hard. And fast. And my legs were feeling great.

Which brings me back to how fit I feel. I ran 26.2 last week, and this week a strong strong 23.5, and I'm just thinking ahead to whatever 20+ mile run they have planned for us next week. This run was definitely a Soul MAKER for me.

You never know what will happen when I line up for the California International Marathon for my date with a Boston Qualifier on Dec 7, but if I'm feeling anywhere close to how I'm feeling right now... Boston doesn't stand a chance of keeping me out.

And the thing is, it's not just me. The people around me are beasts too. And I even hear others talk about the multiple 20 milers, and how no one fears 22 or 23.5 mile Saturdays anymore. This program is working, and it's working DAMN well.

Just need to keep it up. Keep eating well, hydrating, and stay healthy.

It's gonna pay off.