It seems like lately, I’m getting my running speed back. Honestly, it feels amazing to get out and see myself finishing my runs so quickly. I started running in the morning back in August (as a trial) and September (for real) because my new job made it really hard to find the energy I needed to get my training runs in after work.
It was around a year ago that I was really struggling to find inspiration in running even though I had races on the calendar. As a result, I gradually began to lose speed. Let me tell you, finishing with slow times is no fun at all. I ran 6 times in the month of February of 2014. Then, I followed that with 9 runs in March and two consecutive months where I only ran 5 times. I thought that in May, I would strike gold in inspiration as I had the start of Dumbo Double Dare training. However, it took until July before I began to find some consistency. It was rough going. My times were slow and I had pain issues.
When I started my new job in August, it seemed to kill all the momentum I built up in July. By September, I was back to 5 runs for the month. However, in October, I started a nice stretch of getting in 9 runs (October), 8 runs (November), 11 runs (December), 11 runs (January), and 12 runs (February). The results have astounding to me. I went from hoping to finish with a 12 minute per mile average on my morning 3 mile runs to finishing just over 33 minutes or under on those same 3 mile runs. Check out the results…
February 26
February 24
February 19
February 17
February 12
February 11…
February 5
January 28
Even on longer runs, I’m under 12 minutes per mile!
February 28 – 6 miles
February 14 – 7 miles
While I don’t have the sub 12 minute per mile averages on my 20 mile+ training runs, I have seen improvement over similar runs in preparation for the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon! Check it out!
When training for the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon, this is what my 23 mile run looked like. I finished in 5 hours, 29 minutes, 27 seconds.
On February 21st, while training for the LA Marathon, my 23 mile run was a few minutes faster!
Here is what my 20 mile training run for the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon looked like. It took 4 hours, 48 minutes, 33 seconds.
My 20 mile training run for the LA Marathon is again a little faster! As you can see, I’m getting faster and stronger as I go along. February was an amazing month for me with regards to training! It’s my most sincere desire to keep the consistency up in March. I know that there is a limit to the speed I’ll gain by mere repetition. That’s why I’ve added running on a treadmill to my gym workouts. For now, though, I believe wholeheartedly, that consistency has been the biggest reason for the time improvement. If you want to see improvement, get out and run more consistently, and see what happens. I can’t wait to see what March brings!
Why I runDisney 
great job with the consistency! I have been consistent with my running but I have personally found it hard to balance strength training and core work with tapering. This is something I want to focus on through May as I have many races coming up and I want to keep up my strength training and even increase if it possible. My goal is to get back into core work starting tonight. I also need to make sure I am stretching and rolling every night so I am ready for the LAM.
Thanks! Good luck with all those goals you have in regards to strength training!
It is amazing to look back and see the impact of consistent work over time. Great job!
Absolutely! In this taper time, I’ve been spending some time looking back. It’s an interesting exercise to see where I’ve come from. I need to do this more often. It’s entirely too easy to stay focused on the here and now. Looking back gives perspective.
Great job on gaining speed and consistency. I’m working on finding my own motivation and consistence, the north eastern winter has really put a damper on me – I’m just it a treadmill girl! I was curious as to what tracking app/program you were using for your runs. I really like how you have the mileage and times right on your photo and the graph screen shots were neat too!
Thanks! Becoming a morning runner means that I’ve had to learn to deal with cooler temperatures. Although, cold in LA is no where near cold in your part of the world. If you have to deal with snow, the treadmill is the best alternative. I use the Nike Plus app on my phone to get the pictures with my mileage and times. This is the app on my phone. I only use it for runs under 8 miles. When I’m at 8 or more miles, I trust my Nike Plus Sportwatch. Even though I can’t get the fun pictures with it, I don’t trust the battery of my phone to carry me past 8 miles. There’s 3 different settings for what they put on your picture and they have some different layouts. You can upload the photos to many of the different forms of social media as well. Nike Plus is a fun app!