I didn’t run this morning when it was nice outside because I wanted to let my knees rest a little more. I’ll run at lunch when its all nasty and wet instead. Somehow, I’m trying to convince myself that this is an improvement.

Anyway, that’s not the point that I reallly wanted to make. I was thinking last night about my final mile last night, when I was following that other runner. It was hard - but it really wasn’t that hard. At least not until the very end when I had to really kick it up to pass him. Maybe my training has been paying off as far as short-distance speed is concerned. If so, that’s cool.

One area that my training has made a big difference that I didn’t really realize is in my ability to run at an appropriate pace. After being passed, I really tried to keep up with my rabbit; even so, he was pulling away slowly over the first 3/4 of a mile. That means to me that at some level I recognized that his pace was slightly too fast for me. I wasn’t just blindly keeping up with him, I was just running faster than I had been up until that point.

That may not sound like much, but I think it makes a big difference. Running has taught me to listen to my body, and its allowing me to make sensible demands of myself. And at the same time, I’m not just giving my brain a blank check to do whatever it wants to - no matter what the cost. I think that this newfound skill will serve me well over the years to come, especially in races.

This isn’t to say that I’m not happy with my time for time’s sake, especially coming after a difficult six mile run. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to do a 5k now (if there was one) to see what my time would be. Or to be able to redo my mile race. I think I could blow my PRs for both of those out of the water. Heck, just taking my three fastest miles and adding an extra .1 at the same pace, I’d get a 23:54 - over a minute faster than my best 5k time - so I should be able to do quite a bit faster than that if I’m really trying. But the extra speed isn’t as important as the ability to use it wisely.

I’m really looking forward to my hilly five mile Turkey Trot now.

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