Pushing the pace

I've officially started my regular training routine to prepare for my half-marathon in February. My legs feel stronger than ever, and after some nice distance runs I'm feeling no soreness in them whatsoever. A lot of it has to do with easing back into things, I guess.

I'm going to work on bringing up the pace a bit and concentrate on keeping that pace during my tempo runs. I'm fairly comfortable running a 9 minute-per-mile pace, but I know I can do better. I've done some speed work where my fastest mile was right around 7:45 and felt comfortable doing it.

I think that throughout my training for the marathon, I held back on my efforts for fear of getting seriously injured. I know I can hold a faster pace if I can just gain a little more confidence in my running. I've been very fortunate not to have suffered any serious injury to date. And whatever aches and pains I've had, I've been able to lick pretty quickly. Now that I have a nice base to keep me running healthy, I think I can push it a little more.

So we'll see how it goes. Saturday morning I'll be doing 8 miles in the 9 minute pace group. Our training that day has us doing 4 miles at easy pace, and then the other 4 at half-marathon pace.

While I'm at it, I think I'll sign up for the 8K Turkey Trot in Lincoln Park later this month on Turkey day. That race is always a hoot. My PR in the 8K is 00:44:23. I'd like to shave at least five minutes off that time.

We'll see how that goes!