Day 54 (Tues - 2/23)

Well, even with the longer than expected bike ride Flash and I got out for a pretty solid run. We hit the first mile in 6:57 (benchmark one achieved). We put it into a climbing pace to tackle the first of 3 steep short hills and then settled into a recovery pace for 4 minutes. We finished off mile 2 in 8:49. I tried to pick up the pace for the final mile of the 5K distance but the second of the three steep hills slowed me down. We finished off mile three in 8:33 which gave us a 5K time of 24:19 (8:06 miles). We picked up the pace and finished mile four in 7:55 and the last .42 in 3:00. The last mile is primarily flat after steep hill three, and it is pretty amazing how a sub 8:00 pace feels different after working up a hill. Our total time for the full 4.42 miles was 35:14 (7:58 miles – benchmark 2 achieved).

I am not sure, but I think Flash got something out of today’s run. He lead the pace most of the run, but he wasn’t as talkative. Maybe in the next 50 days I will be able to push him once or twice.

My legs are sore tonight especially on the outside of my right Achilles tendon area (just up and back from the ankle bone). Similar to Day 25 I think it is actually the Soleus (lower calf that runs in to and in back of the tendon), but I will be keeping a close eye on this area. The left area that bothered me on Day 25 is feeling fatigued but not sore. In light of this I am planning a slow and short recovery ride tomorrow and a rest day on Thursday.

I am getting back into Thrive and reading up on alkaline forming foods and the benefit to managing pH in the body. Much of the material revolves around a general principal I believe: “Take steps to allow your body to correct itself.” In this case, if you help keep your pH in balance you reduce the stress on other systems allowing them to focus on correcting as they were meant to instead of maintaining which can lead to burn out.

I feel really good about being able to run a mile distance under 7:00 and continue at a sub 8:00 over a 4+ mile run. That was an impossible dream 54 days ago. I guess it is time to do some work in the visualization department.