Today is my one year anniversary of running.

Wow, what a year. I started running last March 25.  I weighed 220 lbs on that day after completing the first leg of my diet.  I ran 1.5 miles in a 12:44 pace.  The  next day I did run 2 miles at about the same pace.  So in one year, I went from running 2 miles every other day to running 35-45 miles a week, 6 days a week.  It really amazes me as I look back on how far I have come.  I am thankful and I hope I can continue this journey for a long time.

So yesterday was my long run day and it went fairly well.  I ran 10 miles in just under a 9 minute pace.  I must say I was spent by the end of the run.  I was still sore from the workouts I did last week, but I was able to complete my goal.  I read an article yesterday saying that most runners run too fast for their easy workouts.  It said that the research shows that running 80% of runs at an easy pace and 20% at a tempo or fast pace is the best way to build up endurance and speed.  By running most runs at a fast pace, people are not only open to getting injured more often, but also do not perform as well in races.  So I took the advice, turned off the audio on my app, and just ran what felt good.  It was a better long run than last weekend at least.  One thing that helped was I decided to run early Saturday morning rather than in the afternoon and to run low miles on Saturday.  That way I was more rested and ready to run the miles I wanted to run.

Today is my day off.  I may walk this afternoon since I really enjoy the outdoors now.  I thought about running 1.5 miles and see how I do compared to a year ago, but I really need the day off for my body to rest.

Keep running!