In case you don't remember, our friend New Runner started running a little over a year ago, not so long before we ran the Jingle Bell 5K in December 2014. Then this past Halloween, we did the Haunted Hustle 5K in Madison ... and she ran the whole dang deal for her first "complete" 5K.
Her big news?
She hit 4 miles of uninterrupted running this past week! Four miles!
Isn't that great? What I love most about it is that she sounds so freaking proud of herself in the best way possible. There's a smile in her voice. And, honestly, I think she's a little surprised that she has done it, though I'm not. I've been telling her all along that she can.
My rationale? If she could do 3, she could do 4 ... it was only a 33% increase. So much "easier" than going from 1 mile to 2, right? What's better yet is that if she can do 4, she can totally do 5 ... because that's only a 25% increase. Each mile from here on out is a smaller challenge. Well, at least for a few more miles.
I keep telling her that 5 or 6 is completely doable from where she is. In fact, it's probably doable right now.
But here's what she doesn't know.
She's been prodding me to do better, too. The student is now driving the teacher.
As I hit my treadmill on Sunday, I was thinking ...
1) It's been a while since I've done a long run. I've had some long walks, and a few longish walk/run combos. But I've not gone over 4 miles in about a month. I'm due.
2) If New Runner can go 4 miles, I can go 5, right?
And then I got nervous. What if I can't go 5?
So I opted for intervals ... 1 minute at 50% pace, 1 minute at 75% pace and 1 mile at 100% pace. Lather, rinse, repeat.
After 63 minutes, with some futzing around of pace to increase it toward the end, I hit 6 miles.
All running.
Whew! I can still do it.
Thanks for the push, New Runner. I needed it.
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