Updates!!

I was in Seattle for 4 days and then we moved out of our new apartment so things have been a bit crazy. I do have great updates though. Tuesday Sept. 16, we did mile repeats at the track. So we ran 1 mile at normal pace, 1 mile as fast as we could, and 1 mile at race pace. The coach timed our fast miles and she really wanted us to just go for it. I have never ran so fast in my life! I clocked an 8:27 mile!!! I couldn't believe it was under 9. When we ran mile repeats in the last program, my fastest was around 9:45. I obviously couldn't keep up that pace for an entire race, but it feels good to know that I can do it at all. I'm getting faster and stronger and it's awesome!! My army 10-miler is next Sunday and my coach suggested I run 8 miles last weekend, 9 tomorrow, and then the 10 next week. You're supposed to gradually decrease your mileage before a race but because I'm not planning on going all out, I can treat it as a training run. Last weekend we were in Seattle and I went to the gym Sunday morning. I've never run 8 miles before so I knew it wouldn't be easy, but on a treadmill it's even worse. I was planning on running 4 in the morning and then 4 in the afternoon to make it easier. Well I know myself and I knew that I wouldn't want to go back later after walking around the city all day so I ran the 8 miles all at once in the morning. I did stop halfway to go to the bathroom and get a snack, but that only took about 15 minutes. That's the most I've ever run!! I felt good for most of the run, but the last couple of miles were a little hard. Tomorrow I'm planning on running 9- yikes!! But at least I'll be outdoors and with my group so it won't be as boring. I'll let you know how it goes!!