further progress!

this morning was the first time in almost two weeks i think that i kind of did what my training plan said to do! this should not be impressive, but it is.

also 'morning' was at noon. shut up, i'm a very important person.

anyway the plan said speedwork: 8 x 800 meters. meaning, 8 half mile repeats. so 4 miles total. well, i did definitely run 4 miles total, with a warm and cooldown in addition.

the ways in which it was awesome and means i can totally run a marathon is that it didn't hurt in any of the ways it did before and i did it all happy easy peasy lemon squeasy and so on.

the ways in which it was suspect is that what i did was run 4 miles straight, and hardly at a speedwork pace. you will recall that upon returning to running post the dread hamstring racing incident, i found that 9:30 was my top speed without pain? well, todays miles were 9:30, 9:15, 9:10 and 8:45. for the first two, i ran evenly the whole time; for the last two, those numbers reflect averages because i ran faster in the middle half of each mile -- but i didn't watch my watch, just tried to move a little faster and a little faster, easing into it and being so insanely attuned to whether there was going to be pain. i am STILL WORRIED about the potential for pain.

the funny thing is that actually i *was* hurting, but in a completely different and ridiculous way. i did something to some tendony thing at the back of both of my legs yesterday, but it was from my *desk chair* being at the wrong height and me not noticing until 5 hours of being engrossed in a writing project. yes, i'm a moron. anyway, that's stupid and problem fixed now; the pain is going away and nothing came of it during the run, it was just there reminding me i don't know how to SIT, and if sitting is an advanced activity for you, who says you can run a marathon?!?

yeah, morale is still a bit of an issue.

but! but, but. i'm getting there. i will keep on trucking as planned until the weekend, and then on saturday or sunday there is the test of tests: 15 miles! i'm going to get a buddy for about the first 10 miles, and then finish it off myself. if i have any crises or epiphanies before then, i'll come whimper at you. if not, i'll let you know how Project Long Run Redemption goes.