Ran the Long Beach Turkey Trot on Thursday and scored a PR! 54:03 for a 10k. Okay, nothing great, but it's 23 seconds faster than my previous. Kristen thought I was going to break 50 minutes, but I didn't. However, I did think I would have knocked it down to at least something in the 53 minute area. She asked if I try hard enough. You know, right now my philosophy is that it's only worth it ("it" being running) as long as it's fun. If training becomes a chore (as it did during the buildup to the LB marathon) and I push really, really hard to the point where I'm miserable, then I'll lose interest. Well, sort of. I guess if getting a PR is the be all end all then that would make running annoying. So, in the end, I cut 23 seconds off my last 10k time and I enjoyed the run while always being in that "slightly uncomfortable" mode. When I PR'd my 5k time last February I remember running the race in a "really, really uncomfortable" mode and as a result I knocked about 4 minutes off my previous time. That's okay for a 5k, but 6.2 miles of that...well, not right now. Right now I'm content to gradually lower my times. It gradually gets easier to run better times without the training and the actual race being something to dread. Then again, maybe I'm just a slacker.
Our running club,
AREC, has a new trail running training program going on right now that is preparing people for the Catalina Half and full Marathons coming up in the winter. You don't have to be running the race to participate in the training runs so it's a nice change of pace to hit the hills occasionally on Saturdays. I'm hoping the extra effort will pay off during my half marathon in Huntington Beach in February and Kristen's full marathon. And speaking of Kristen's marathon, we just found out that the 2010 Boston Marathon is already sold out so she won't be able to run it. Bummer, but I guess you have 2 years from the day you qualify to run it so she'll give it a shot in 2011.
Well, I'm off for my long run.
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