Shaking off the slow

HMMMM. I finally seem to be coming out of my running funk. I'm not sure why, but I will take it. Last year was just a slow year for me in general. Not because I didn't WANT to run faster, I just really couldn't for some reason. Almost all of my runs were very slow and my race times followed suit. However, I am about to finish my 4th week of training for the Illinois marathon and am very pleasantly surprised by my numbers. I am just plain faster this season and I like it. My HR is still higher than I would like, but my runs are feeling comfortable. My suspician is that if I continue training well, it will drop in 6-8 weeks.

I ran 16 outside today after a wonderful 10 hours of sleep. I cannot even remember the last time I slept nearly that long. It was 28 degrees, but VERY windy. I also hit the hills and hit them hard. It felt good to really crank it out. Finished up with the last mile the fastest despite it being mostly in the wind. I'll take it.

This morning I uploaded a bunch of race pictures to Facebook. It was very motivating. I also did my part to stimulate the economy and dropped a load of cash on some new running gear. It all got me fired up and caused me to rethink my goals. And even though crazy, I am going to say them outloud:

Marathon: 3:25
Mile: Sub 5:58

Both would be PRs. I am hungry for them and planning to nail them this year. I am following the Pfitz up to 55 mpw program, but so far I have successfully been adding miles every week. I hope to start running 6 days a week so I can get up to 60 at least once or twice and to stay more consistently in the 50+ range.