41!

And who said 40 was a barrier?!?!?!?!?! If anything it was all mental, because this week I CRUSHED through that wall with an explosion! Saturday I set out on a session that was a 1 mile warm up, 3 sets of 5mins 10K pace, 5 mins HM pace and finished with a nice easy 1 mile cool down jog. Before the run, I had setup "goal" paces in my Garmin 305, and hoped to keep up the pace. I set up 7:30-7:45 for the 10K pace, and 7:45-8:15 for the HM pace. Needless to day, I BLEW those right out of the water. That added into the annoyance factor of the Garmin. If your going to fast, it incessantly beeps at you to tell you to slow down.....But my body was having none of that. And I knew it was going to be a fast day. I did my warm up jog at an 8:30 pace. But I felt good, and I wanted to get a QUALITY speed work session in, because I knew my group was running hard in the Oracle 10K, and the thought of them getting one on me, made me push even harder, especially towards the end of the run when it became more difficult to push that final pace. But the key was, I DID IT! And I did it so much, that by the end of my 1 mile cool down run, I was at the turnaround point of what I like to call "extra" credit time on the morning run with Paul. Adding in that little extra credit session allowed me to have a nice half mile jog back home afterwords. And the nice thing, another 6.5 miles in the book. That took me to 29.5 by the end of Saturday!

So starting Sunday, I was ready to run. I woke up BEFORE my alarm clock for the first time in a very long time. I was really looking forward to the solitude of a Sunday outing. I am becoming addicted to my Sunday runs. Knowing that 40 was well in reach, I decided to modify my long run from last week a bit, and add in a little challenge of going to the TOP of Wade road, instead of turning 1/4 of the way, and heading through Continental Reserve. Going to the top meant heading up one of the toughest hills in the area. It's STEEP! It looks like a wall as you approach it, but I have run up it many times before, and to put it mildly, we know each other pretty well. Once I got to the top, I could see that stop sign which has always signified the downhill is here! But I decided to modify the route a bit more, and take the HARD way out. Instead of making the usual left had turn, I turned right, and took the roller coaster adventure. Straight down, the straight back up. So much so, that you can see the marks on the road where cars bottom out as they scrape the pavement. Once the rollers are over, it's a nice easy downhill that ends up at a usual point and I'm back in Continental Reserve. In all, it added an nice and challenging two miles to the journey. 2 miles where I easily maintained a 9:15 pace. I continued on and continued clipping off the miles: 6, 7, then 8! In my head I kept doing a little mental countdown. I get to 11, I've got 40 in the books! And so my mental focused turned to Pat Tillman. The great number 40 that played for the Arizona Cardinals, and left his lucrative NFL contract to go fight for his country in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he was accidentally killed by friendly fire in an amazingly tragic accident of miscommunication. I kept saying to myself, what would Pat do! And from there, I kept increasing the pace.....9:00, 8:55, and then finally 8:40....And the miles kept clicking off at 9, 10, and finally I was on that home stretch towards 11. I made the right turn through the retirement community of Sunflower, and I was headed for home, and my legs just kept getting stronger and stronger. When finally my watch went off to signify the end of mile 11.

At this point I stopped and took a little break. I wasn't home, but I knew that I had completed something that I figured mentally would have broken me. But my mind stayed strong, and I only got stronger as I finished! I took the moment to enjoy the victory, polish off that last bit of water I had, and get back running and jog it back in, nice and easy, with a HUGE smile on my face. That was the best half mile I think I've ever run. I was pumped for the entire DAY. Even a Cardinals loss in Carolina couldn't take that grin off my face! I was so pumped up!

Needless to say, my legs earned their rest week. Today was a complete day of rest. No running. I got to sleep in until 6am, and give the motor the day off. I plan on cutting back the miles to about 30 this week. 2 FULL days off, today and Friday. But the workouts are going to target speed. Short, but fast! I'll get in at least 2 six and a half milers with Paul, a group workout....And then Saturday is a TIME TRIAL! It's that 30 minute tempo that I use to gauge my success. 3.9 miles is the distance to beat. I want to go out and absolutely CRUSH it!

Until tomorrow, LIVESTRONG and Train Hard!