Running 101-Second Timed Mile

It was HOT and HUMID last night.
Okay probably not as hot as it felt but it was humid. We warmed up with a short quarter mile jog around the shopping center and then did some active warm up and active stretching exercises before heading out to 123 for our "main event" as Coach Kelly likes to call it.

We jogged for about 1/4 mile to our start point for some running drills and then the timed run. Several of us had run the Rockstar 8K on Sunday and still had a bit of lead feeling in our legs but we motored on to the start. We did our regular running drills of high knees, butt kicks, low skips and high skips with one variation--a very slight up hill on the return. It was very slight, something you normally wouldn't notice but I did and felt a bit better when everyone else did too.  We also did a running drill of push off and accelerate for the same distance three times in a row. We did all of this prior to our 1 mile timed run.

I WAS CONVINCED MY RUN WAS GOING TO BE HORRIBLE.

The warm up jog, the warm up exercises, the jog to the start and the running drills had already worn me out and we hadn't even done our long run yet which convinced me of the above statement... my run was going to be horrible.

I started with with a few of the women that run at a 12 to 13 minute pace knowing they would keep me from starting too hard but that was not the case as they started hard with ambition and desire. My legs were like lead and I felt like I was taking these tiny little steps not going anywhere at all. It was then that I decided I was just running a mile and to put the whole time thing out of my head. Just keep the other ladies in my sight which meant keeping my head up and eyes forward and motor on. So I ran on. Slowly but surely the next thing I knew I was coming up on Paynes Church Road which was the turn around and it was 5:30 into the run. If I kept it up I would have finished with an 11:00 pace. I was amazed as I felt I was just poking along and not doing well at all. I turned around and kept going but ended up taking two separate walk breaks during the return 1/2 mile, just short ones no more than 30 seconds each just when my legs started to feel like lead. I decided to stride it out for the end stretch and really give it a push.

Remember I was convinced it was going to be horrible. It was hot and humid so of course it was going to be horrible. I had even asked what the handicap was for hot and humid. Coach Kelly proved me wrong once again.

I finished at 11:13 for the mile.

I took just under 1 minute 30 seconds off my time for the mile.

Amazing what the coach has helped me do in just 8 short weeks.