Stranger Things Have Happened

Have you ever had a routine day where routine no longer feels routine? I'm not talking about the kind of day where things go wrong, but the kind of day where you simply forget how you normally do things. I'm not sure why, but in my fatigue I seemed to be forgetting the little things. Like say, my fancy GPS watch. Which was a shame because today something unusual happened to me.

I was fast.

Well, relative to the group! What I mean by fast is that out of 11 girls, on every rep I continuously was in the top three to finish. The slowest I ran a rep was near the end, when we had to run over the Goodwill Bridge and back as a rep, wherein I dropped back to 4th. Apparently, hills always get me. I tried to keep my focus on increasing my turnover while maintaining a short stride and it seemed to work really well. Now I've just got to make that mindset a habit and I'll be cruising.
And may I just say, I love coming in the lead? I have always been jealous of the leaders - they get longer rests between reps as they wait for us poor unfit ones to drag ourselves to the finish. As we gasp for air they are recovered and ready for the next rep. So off we go again. It feels like a system designed for the fast to get faster and the slow to get slower.
At the end we ran up the Kangaroo Point stairs. Following the lead of the girl in front, I did actually run them for the first time in my life! Normally I get about 1/3 of the way to the top and slow to a walk. I was really happy. And even weirder was that as hard as I worked today, I felt really good for it. Rather than finishing the run exhausted and beat up, I felt rather energized.
Someone asked why that might be, when normally I am not the fastest on a Friday. I think maybe in part it is because I didn't have a hill session Thursday morning to tire me out.
For those who have not experienced the Kangaroo Point stairs, here is an image of them to give you a rough idea of why they are sought out as a fitness person's Mecca in Brisbane. (Which may be why I don't like them - too narrow for the crowds most times!)