It's All Relative

It's funny to think how far I have come sometimes.  I mean seriously, never in a million years did I ever think I'd be sitting where I am as it relates to athletic ability or even athletic interest for that matter.  I'm certainly no rock star, I'm just a regular girl who never was an athlete, and suddenly finds that I can actually be reasonably competitive if I work at it.  If my blog gives nothing else, I hope it gives the certain knowledge to anyone looking for it that if you want to do something, you only have to put your mind to it and act on it, and in so doing, make it possible.  Just do it.  Yep, Nike sure got it right with that one.

This morning was the 41st running of the Atlanta Tradition called the Peachtree Road Race.  It's a 10k race, held on July 4th every year.  This is the largest 10k race in the world - 60,000 people.  And likely 100,000 cheering on the streets.  Unless you've done the Peachtree, you really can't imagine what that looks like.  It is truly mind boggling.  When we left the park, almost 2 hours after I finished, and we looked back at the finish line ... it was still a huge mass of people running in.  No gaps.  Anywhere.

So my instructions, received by text when I reminded Chris last week that I was doing the Peachtree, were:  OK, take that easy...just make it a recovery run, DO NOT race it!

That was fine with me.  As we headed to the movies yesterday afternoon (go see Larry Crowne btw, best movie I've seen in a while, LMAO), I wondered what pace that looked like.  I've done the PTRR 3 times (I think), but I haven't done it for the last two years.  Where I am right now, my 10k race pace is close to 7:30...my long run pace, depending on the weather, ranges anywhere from 8:00 - 8:45 usually (with some exceptions I'd care to forget).  So I figured, okay, I'll plan on an 8:15-8:30 and see what that feels like.  And it occurred to me that even at a long run pace, this would be my fastest PTRR by a long shot.

camera held above the crowd
but still caught me!

Well, long story short, I showed up this morning, felt good thanks to my ice bath yesterday, set out to run at a recovery pace...and despite 78% humidity in Atlanta, finished at 49 minutes, having run a 7:45 pace.  And in fact several times I made myself slow down as I looked at the garmin and thought "man, Chris is gonna kill me".  But I felt great.  At no point during that run, hills and all, did I feel bad in any way!  And I don't know if it was just the atmosphere and all the people, but I've never had 6 miles go by so quickly.  It was actually fun!  And that was the point of this race.  I had fun, and I got my t-shirt.


Oh and one interesting thing - both my Garmin and Z's registered 6.35 miles!!!

We met up with Z and had a few beers after to celebrate the beginning of our recovery week, and then headed home.  And per strict instructions, I am resting, doing virtually nothing.  And I don't plan on doing anything that is not precisely in my training plan for the week!!

Everything is really relative - in life as in training.  I love seeing the progression over the years.  At one time a 10k was a huge deal for me.  And then I started doing longer runs, and I realized about two years ago, that I could really just get out of bed and run a 10k without really thinking about it, though my time was certainly a lot slower.  Now I do them in PR time and barely feel winded at the end of it.  It gives me huge encouragement to think what I'll be able to do in another two years as I continue to bring my fitness and health to ever reaching new limits.  It's so exciting!

So just get out there and do it.  Who cares how long it takes you to run a mile.  Next year it will be faster if you stick with it, and the year after, faster still.  And pretty soon you'll be able to look in the mirror and say, wow - look at what I can do!

Happy Training!
Kat