Wooohoooo! Best run so far!

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions this year - I think this race encompasses most of what I'd want to resolve anyway - but for some reason I still feel like I can check an item off of my non-existent list.  Today's run, scheduled for 30 minutes, was my best run ever!  (Lance Armstrong even told me so - via my Nike +!)

If there was ever a day that was going to test my commitment to sticking to my schedule, it would be today...it was something like twenty degrees - not including wind chill.

I started out feeling like I was running faster than normal, but I figured I'd get tired and slow down within the first few minutes.  I tend to start with a lot of energy that I can't quite sustain.  Much to my surprise, I was able to keep up my pace for the whole run!  Not only did I KEEP my pace and run my longest run yet (slightly), but I ran my fastest average mile yet.

I'm so excited!!

Breath control has been a problem for me in past runs - I find myself winded before the run comes to an end.  For whatever reason, I didn't have any difficulty at all breathing despite the sub-freezing weather.

The biggest problem for this run was some tension in my calves.  When possible, I tried to run on the grass next to the sidewalk, but it didn't make a huge difference.  Regardless, it was just mildly uncomfortable and not debilitating.  I'll keep an eye on it in case it becomes recurrent.

I wonder if the fact that I did this run in the evening factored into my enhanced performance?  The Cherry Blossom is in the morning so I'd rather keep running on the earlier end, but being able to run off the frustrations of the day was really satisfying today.

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's!  I spent mine in NYC - not doing any pilates, but I did get a short-not-supposed-to-exist run in on Monday.  I went to a vegan restaurant and had an AMAZING coconut tofu-cream pie that I will try to replicate this weekend on rest/pie day!  Stay tuned...

Oh, incidentally, I think I'm going to change my powersong from Rooney's "When Did Your Heart Go Missing" to Dogs Die in Hot Cars' "Godhopping," which is just a great, peppy song.

Godhopping - Does this work?

(once the link opens, click to refresh if you get an error message. it WILL work!)