Continued improvement...

I ran the Missionary Ridge Road Race yesterday. It's a 4.7-mile race on a course with rolling hills and about 300 feet of elevation gain. I went out much too fast, which resulted in a lot of walking and new best times in the 800 (3:32), 1K (4:29), mile (7:38), 2 mile (15:30), and 5K (24:47). My goal was to finish in under 40 minutes, and I did it in 39:22.

The progress is remarkable. I ran the Peachtree at an 8:45 pace, and a month later, I completed a race with more hills at an 8:18 pace. That's a 5% improvement in a month, and I only ran 14 times during that month.

I'm in the 18-week training block for the Invesco QQQ Half Marathon on Thanksgiving Day. I'm following Hanson's Beginner Marathon training plan. That plan calls for 3-5 easy miles a day, five days a week, for the first 5 weeks. I'm ignoring it and instead working to run 40 miles a week. I'll get with the program when the speed work, tempo runs and long runs start up.