Monday, March 5, 2012

Don't call it a comeback...

Well, actually, you can call it a comeback. Yesterday, Trevor and I raced in the Fort Vancouver 15k run and it was a record breaking day for both of us.

I feel like I was at my peak running ability back in September. I had run a personal best marathon in May, then in September, I ran my fastest half marathon ever. Then, the wheels fell off.

It was around that time that we were really struggling with Asha. I was sleeping on the floor every night. We were getting no sleep, running on empty all the time. My feet started to hurt so badly that I could barely walk. It was awful. We slowed things down, cut our mileage way back, I cut my mileage out for a few weeks. We started building again, but were not getting any faster.

We had wanted to run a half marathon in February and wanted to have personal bests. It because clear to me in January that our goals were not realistic. We were training hard and our times were not where they needed to be. We would go out for a run, aiming for a specific pace and it just about killed us trying to maintain that pace. Both of us were unable to do it. We finally agreed that we needed to just run and enjoy it, not train for anything major.

The last few weeks, things with Asha have been getting better. I have been feeling more rested, not rested, but more rested! We've been training with the Vancouver Fit marathon training group for the Vancouver USA Marathon in June. Our running is ramping up, we aren't at the mileage I would like to be, but we are getting there.

Yesterday, for the first time since September, I wanted to really open it up and see what I could do. My goal was to run under 9 minutes per mile, that's where I was at in September and haven't been there since.

I ran 8:55 minute miles and Trevor ran 7:15 minute miles. It was a good day, we both felt strong and its been a while since we felt that way. I finally felt like we were back. That is a great feeling.

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