My Little Milestone

So I wanted to log this for history sake...

I was at the gym this past Wednesday to do five miles on the dreadmill. Now, I try to avoid that god forsaken thing as much as possible, but since lovely mother nature keeps finding ways to derail my running schedule, I have to make due to get my miles in.

Flash back to six months ago, I would normally get on that thing and go no faster than 5.5 miles an hour for close to fifteen minutes before tiring and running out of breath. Fifteen minutes at that speed works out to about 1.5 total miles. I've probably been on that thing no more than three times since then, preferring to run outdoors.

This past Wednesday, I was able to run just over three miles cranking that thing up to 6.7 mph for a straight 25 minutes without stopping. That doesn't include the 2 miles I did on each end of that, which were slightly slower. This equals out to an average 8:43 minutes-per-mile pace through three miles. This is fast, for me anyway!

I felt zero pain, my breathing was incredibly stable the entire time, I really enjoyed myself, and I wasn't sore afterwards! I guess doing the run on the dreadmill, with all of those numbers clicking by, kind of amplified the experience.

It just goes to show that my hard work is paying off. I still have a long road ahead before Chicago, but at least I know (or hope) I'm on the right track with my conditioning.

This Saturday I plan on doing seven miles on the Chicago lakefront path- my 2nd seven miler to date.

Wish me luck!