The Treadmill Was My Bitch

Monday night is usually softball night for me but since it had rained all day for 2 days in a row, my game was cancelled. My lifting buddy (who plays soccer on Monday nights, which also got cancelled) and I made plans to meet at the gym. My workouts for the summer have consisted of softball games every weekend, waking up at 6am 3 times a week to run 2.2 miles (or something like that), and doing pushups. My weight loss has stalled but I’ve been feeling really great. I don’t feel lazy, I’m only tired when I don’t get enough sleep, and I just generally feel like I’m in a constant state of readiness to kick ass.

Last night, I decided to run a timed mile on the treadmill. I looked back and saw that my previous lifetime best on June 1 was 8:26, setting the treadmill to 7.0 mph until the 7:30 mark and then upping the speed to 8.0mph. Last night, I started at 7.1 and was going to follow a similar procedure, if possible. As soon as I started running, I was thinking, “damn, this feels really good. I don’t even feel like I’m trying hard.” I resisted the temptation to speed up. (I’ve fallen into that trap before and then been disappointed when I got too winded too early.) I got the ¾ mile mark and still felt really good so I sped up to 7.3 and then 7.5 and then 8.0 and then 8.4 and then ran the last 40 seconds at 9.0. I smashed my personal best and finished at 8:12. I was absolutely delighted. I had no idea I would close in on an 8 minutes mile so quickly. Losing 10 lb and continuing to run 3 times a week should get me there before new years. Hell yeah!