Still bummed on missing my mileage goal this week. Missing Thursday's run and cutting another run short because of an upset stomach were the reasons/excuses. But I did get in at least 45 minutes of exercise each day. Lately I have been wondering how my slow paced training would translate to race results when the times comes. I have my first race of the year mid-March. Last year I only ran in two, and they were six months apart. I am just not sure what to expect from myself. I know that building a good base is the way to go and speed will come later. Of course I mean that in relative terms. My speed is a slow pace to many others. So before I ran I looked at some blogs and saw Lybi's race report. She said she trains at a 10 - 11 minute pace. Then today she raced at sub 8. I wondered if I am capable of something like that. So I made a spur of the moment decision to find out. I ran a warm-up to a pond that has a flat dirt path around it. 8 laps equals 3.11 miles. I ran it as hard as I could. I figured I would have a first mile split in the neighborhood of 7:30. Then I figured the 2nd would be a little faster. I would just hang on and try to maintain for the 3rd. The 1st mile split was 7:08. I thought, uh-oh, too fast I am going to end up dying midway through mile 2. But then I hit 7:00 for that split. Finished well with a 6:41 3rd mile..plus tack on :43 for the final .11. Total was 21:32 - 6:55 avg. I was very surprised with my finish time. Then ran a cool down back to my house. So I think I need to get used to running some faster paced miles. The race is a little over a month away. I am going to try and run some of the middle miles of my workouts faster than what I have been doing. Running is starting to get a bit more exciting to me all of the sudden! Run - warm-up - 1.65 - 13:54 3.11 - 7:08, 7:00, 6:41, :43 - 21:32 - 6:55 avg. cool down - 1.73 - 14:25 | 