I just can’t get over the benefits of training with friends right now. I blogged last week about my tempo run and how great it was for me. (Read about it here). I ran that tempo run by myself and I felt great. Last night one of my friends joined me for my tempo run. Since she ran track in college, she was used to sprinting and doing these types of workouts that I so rarely find myself doing. We set out the two of us and the dog. We set a pretty good pace as she made a comment about it feeling like we were running a 7:30 min/mi. I laughed as I didn’t feel like we were going that fast nor did I think I could sustain that pace for 3-4 miles. We decided to do an out and back to ensure that we were running on mostly dry sidewalks. We were still cruising along as we reached our 15 minutes out and turned around. It was farther than I had gone last week, so I knew we were doing better than I had done on my own.
I did not know how well we were doing. Most of the time I find it easier to just listen to my body rather than look at a watch or running app. As we came closer to home, we felt like we were slowing down. The dog was also getting a little slower. We tried keeping up the pace as we rounded the corner towards the house. We stopped right at 30 minutes in front of the house. I pulled out my phone to see that we had run a 7:47 min/mi pace. I couldn’t believe it. This was 43 seconds faster than on my own. For those of you that don’t run, even 5 seconds per mile faster can be a huge difference in making or breaking a goal. My friend was also excited as it has been a while since she has gone out and ran a tempo run. We were excited to have accomplished this together.
To top it off, I broke my 5k record. (Thanks to NikePlus for telling me!) Of course I wasn’t racing, so this isn’t officially on the books. Although, since I probably won’t run a 5k anytime soon, I am counting it as a record. Really, it is my fastest training run record. We spent some time cooling off with a slow run around the block a few times and then stretched out. It was a fun run. The best thing is that we were both able to talk with each other and it didn’t feel like we were wasting our breath. If you can still talk while running, it is always a good thing. Otherwise, you might be pushing your body too hard. (Doing sprints are a different story though, as you are going full out most of the time).
What another great run with a friend and another great effort! I am so excited for my marathon training this time around!