Running update: good progress

I just finished a 10.475km running that lasted about 0hh:52mm:55ss !

Before checking the details for my last run (the one from the cover pic), let's have a quick look at the list of runs since my last update. I've been lazy to post the updates, but I haven't been so lazy for the actual running! Except once, it's been pretty much every 2 or 3 days. Some on the short side, that's when I ran out of daylight, and I consider it's too early in the year to start running only at night. When it's dark out at 5pm, sure, I won't have a choice anyways. But when we get daylight until after 9pm, it just seems wrong. Some longer ones, and that includes my longest one so far with a full hour! Not bad, right?

Nothing particularly impressive though, it's just the runs of somebody trying to get back into better form. So I won't go into the details for all of them, but I will pick a couple ones though.

Check the splits on this one:

As often, I probably started too fast compared to my form at the time. But I didn't feel tired after the first mile, which is why I ran further East than I had planned. Without even knowing it, my pace significantly dropped though. It's a good example of how deceiving feelings and sensations can be. I really felt I was doing well, when in fact I was much slower. At least, when I noticed it, I didn't push myself in the red too much like I would have done in the past. Instead I just kept going the same, and progressively increased my pace, which allowed me to finish relatively strong. This kind of paces around 9 min/mile are in the past now luckily.

Then just a few days later, my longest run so far this year:

As you can see, the average pace was already significantly faster around 8:25min/mile. I had planned a longer run, but I really didn't care about the pace. Again I started too fast, but after that first mile, I got into a decent pace, and although it very slightly slowed down along the way, I was really surprised to be able to maintain it almost till the end. The cooler and drier weather really helped, and that was very encouraging to me for my training.

And finally, the one on the cover, my fastest one so far, just around 8:07 min/mile for a little over 10k. My objective for the end of August was to be back under 50 minutes for a 10k. That was very close!

I guess this was my reference run since I started training again. I felt better, no soreness and no urge to stop and walk after a while... We're still not talking about crazy paces, but I like how consistent it was, with even a small sprint at the end. So different from just a month ago!

All in all, the training is going quite well, maybe even slightly better than I hoped. However, I know it is very likely I will hit a plateau soon, and it will be important to quickly get over it, so progress can continue until the Detroit half marathon in October.