Gaining the confidence to run long

Wednesday was a great day.

I spent all day thinking about my run. Not because I thought I wasn't going to finish, but because it would be the longest I've run in almost 8 weeks due to my right knee injury. I'd been doing 30 to 45 minutes of a 4x1 run/walk combination for almost two weeks (4 minutes run, 1 minute walk). For this run, I extended it to a 8x2 for one hour and the run would be just over my half-marathon pace (9 minutes per mile).

Half of my route was pavement, and the other half was a gravel trail to relieve some of the pounding on the knee. It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the upper 50's, and I got to wear shorts!! I was a little worried about the rigorous lower body weight work out I did the day before, but even that one was pain free. I pounded the knee for two hours with reps upon reps of 50 to 100 pounds of weights, but the knee held up wonderfully.

Well, I did it. One hour and 6 miles later I had finished with no pain in the knee whatsoever. I even ran the last mile all the way through at half-marathon pace (8:45 per mile). And the coolest thing ever? I had gas to do even more, but I refrained from doing so for fear of taking it too far.

I was ecstatic. All I said afterwards was thank you, thank you, thank you to the Lord above (a little praying never hurts!). This was a milestone run and it's boosted my confidence 110%. I just can't wait to start my runs of 10 miles and over- it's when I'm most at peace.

So that's it. While friends are winding down their training for our St. Louis race next weekend, I still have a lot of work to do to catch up.