Runner's High

This morning I did NOT want to train. I had a late night last night, my shins have been sending me strong warnings of "listen to me, idiot!" on two of last week's runs, and the thought of going out there to smash out my speed session as promised made me wince. All I could think was I don't want to go!

But up I got and out I went, hoping for an easier speed session. When I found out we had the the challenging 3k/2k/1k set, I just wanted to crawl back into bed! Ugghhhh!!!

I told myself I couldn't do it. Not with tight calves, sore shins, and lack of sleep. And then like any disciplined runner, I decided to go out at my hardest anyway...if only to see how long I lasted.

And I SMASHED it. 

My personal best in a 1k rep is around 5.05 or 5.10 minutes. I would love to drop below that magic 5.00min kilometre, but it has remained elusive thus far.

Until today, of course!

Not only did I run my fastest 1k time, but it was in my final rep - after I had completed my 3k and 2k reps. As it so happened, I started the last km rep with a friend who is notably much faster than me. I was expecting to be fully left behind, which pushed me all the harder to keep up. Okay, he might have been having an off day while I was running like I had eaten awesomeness for breakfast, but it was about having someone there to push me through this final rep, not about who was faster that day.

In the last 200m or so, the beautiful Bec (who was running in the opposite direction) turned around early to run with me, pushing me harder and telling me to go, go, go, faster, faster, faster. I couldn't say thank you at the time as my whole focus was on breathing and reaching that finish line. But I was so, so grateful. It was exactly what I needed to keep me from fading at the end. I finished at exactly a 4.00min/km pace. Which for me is SUPER DUPER FAST.

I wish I could say I kept up that SUPER DUPER fast pace for the whole km, but I didn't. Still, I managed to break well into the sub-5min km, running that last km at a total time of 4 minutes 48 seconds. 

At the beginning of the year, I set a goal to run a personal best in a race. Well, today I may not have run a race, but let me say that a pb - any pb - is such a runner's high!