What a great day...

Again, apparently, I must learn the lesson of not reading too much into my first feelings about a given run until I get a chance to look at the data objectively. When I walked off the course, I thought I had an OK day, but it turns out I had a fantastic day.

A quick summary of today's results:

• 5K PR shattered
• Ran more, walked less
• Beat my previous time (by a monster amount) on a previous course that was just as hilly
• No pain in the ankle
• And I got to run with a bunch of my new training friends

How good was today?

With a longer course, I shaved 3:38 off my previous PR. If I take the fastest 3.13 miles off the Hot Chocolate Run, I shaved 5:40 off of the Nookachamps run. And Nookachamps was less hilly than the HC 5K! From my 5K just before Christmas it is around seven minutes better!

If I crunch the data even further - with my HR roughly the same as the previous race on a less hilly course, I ran much faster. This is a great sign!

I know I have to work on the self-confidence because I honestly thought I had an OK day, but not this great.

These are the sorts of days that leave me with the the confidence to know that I can conquer Miami and that the full Ironman (looking like Wisconsin) is looking better and better! It's days like this that make all of the difference.