Ever have a day where everything just clicks?

I went out to do this week’s long run (14miles) with the TNT team on the Boston course in Wellesley…we ran 7mi towards Hopkinton and then 7mi back. I have been doing the 10min run/1min walk method to prepare for Boston. I have seen some VERY nice results from this method and will continue to use it leading up to April 21, 2008. So most of my long runs have yielded a gross per mile pace of 8:39/mile (including the walks) which puts my actual running times at 8:15/mile pace. Not too shabby, but can I hold this pace for longer than a couple miles?? That is the question! So I decided to challenge myself a little this particular week and see what I’m made of! I wanted to do 8:00/mile pace for the run, with 1min walks in between. I started out a little fast (which I knew) but wanted to see if I could hold it. Here were my results:

1: 7:52 pace (AVG HR-174)
2: 7:45 pace (AVG HR-163)
3: 7:44 pace (AVG HR-171)
4: 7:44 pace (AVG HR-167)
5: 7:47 pace (AVG HR-169)
6: 7:44 pace (AVG HR-165)
7: 8:04 pace (AVG HR-167)
8: 7:52 pace (AVG HR-168)
9: 7:58 pace (AVG HR-166)
10: 7:57 pace (AVG HR-169)
11: 8:06 pace (AVG HR-170)

So these were 10min intervals with 1min walk in between to add up to 14 total miles. Today was a great day…I never *really* thought that I could hold the 8min/mile pace for that long, but sometimes when you challenge yourself you achieve remarkable things. I was on cloud nine after this particular run! I was in a zone. Everything just seemed to click.