6.6 miles in 57:00... works out to 8:37 min/miles. That's the fastest pace I've ran all year... YESSS. It's pretty darn near the fastest pace I've ran for that kind of distance in quite possibly YEARS. Yes, years! I'm pretty psyched.
I'm almost back to my "old self" (pre-figure competition days). This marks a huge shift in my fitness routine and attitude towards fitness and health, because for the last 2-3 years I've been combating various injuries, aches and pains and strains in my right hip that sidelined me from running for literally months at a time. As soon as I felt "better," I would head out for another run or do some sprints or jumps and end up re-injuring myself. It was a never-ending cycle. Pretty demoralizing.
At the same time all of this was happening, I switched careers and became a personal trainer. Since then, I've learned so much about how the human body works and realized the inherent dangers in running, especially repetitive stress injuries from wear and tear on your joints. Even the slightest muscular imbalance could dramatically change your gait, which affects the way your foot strikes the ground. Your body absorbs the shock of each foot strike with 10x your body weight I increasingly eschewed running in favor of alternative exercises like weight lifting and bodyweight cardio.
Over the years, I made a few half-hearted attempts to get "back into running." I was signed up for the 2013 NYC Marathon.. my training efforts were lackluster at most.. so when the marathon was cancelled after the hurricane, I took the refund and moved on with life. I signed up for the Brooklyn Half marathon in 2014, and only went for one single training run, so when it was pouring rain the night before during packet pickup, I decided not to go and opted not to run the race entirely. I signed up for the Brooklyn Half again in 2015. Here and there, I went out for short runs of no more then 1-4 miles, and that was pretty much my entire running routine from late 2012 through 2015.
I'm still not a huge fan of running. I still think its hard and it hurts. It's getting easier though! Just like anything in life, if it's tough and you stick with it long enough, it will start to get easier. Eventually, you will see results. My results this time were a long time coming. It took about 2 months of running around Prospect Park for 1 lap, 1x/week, before I started to feel comfortable.
This was the first run in a very long time where I can honestly say that I "zoned out." I've been running with other people for the majority of my runs lately - I needed the company and moral support, otherwise I was likely to give up. Running is painful, and it's hard. Especially when you're out of practice, even a single mile at a relatively comfortable pace feels like a huge physical challenge, and a much larger mental battle.
Going back to today, it rained. It was light sporadic rain, but still enough that by the time I finished, I was soaked.
Running was missing from my life. I'm glad it's back.
