Bringing it together

This spring has gone pretty well so far. I completed a 10 mile race and exceeded expectations with an average 8:33 pace. I set a couple of goals for myself early this year that I hope to meet before this coming November. I wanted to go under 24 minutes in a 5k and under 50 minutes in a 10k. I met both of those goals in consecutive weekends this month. I ran a 22:53 in the Kitchen Run and I ran a 48:06 on a fairly short Habitat for Humanity 10k. I feel best about the 10k. Mostly because it comes on the heels of a couple of poor training runs. I credit the speedwork I've been doing with the improvements. I also credit my good friend Don. He has inspired me to get faster after he won a local 10k and won his AG in the Kitchen Run.

I've noticed quite a return in shoulder strength lately. This seems to be how it goes; work on strength and make small gains, plateau, the leap forward. I just had one of those leaps about a week ago. Lifting a 10# dumbbell to 90 degrees was a struggle and I couldn't quite get it there. Then in a weeks time, I can raise it over my head. Next I'll test myself with a 15#. I'm very pleased with where I'm at in this regard.

I had a breakthrough in swimming recently. I don't know what happened, but last week I was doing 400y repeats. Every time I began a set, the first 50 was just so smooth. Now I'm working on maintaining that feel for further. Tonight I was able to sustain it for 100+. Smooth is fast...

SORT certifications in a couple of weeks. I'll be happy to get this behind me. I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to do it this year. I was fully prepared to wait until the fall before I might be capable of the upper body strength required to rappel and complete the Obstacle course. I'm very pleased that I'll be able to certify with the rest of the guys.