I signed up for my third marathon, which is going to take place in November. After Indianapolis, I had made a proclamation that I was going to stay away from marathons. I felt burnt out, and beyond discouraged. I added on 30 minutes to my first marathon time. Granted, I was coming back from a pretty extensive surgery, so I’m sure that played a big part.

This year feels different. I feel different. It’s like something finally clicked in my brain that if I want to yield different results (i.e., run faster and not be so burnt out), then I need to be different. For the past month or so, I have been doing track workouts on a regular basis.

Before this, I hadn’t done a track workout on a regular basis in years. When I ran with Fleet Feet, I would drive all the way from the North Hills to the South Hills to make the track workout. Given that I have turned into quite the pseudo-yinzer, I don’t like to go through a tunnel.  I got out of the habit of going to track workouts, and it takes me forever to get back into one.

I am so thankful for my current job, and the fact that it allows me to attend these toolbox runs. I can definitely I’m making progress because my pace is getting faster in certain stretches of my long runs. Yesterday, there was a half mile where I was flying! I looked at my watch and saw my pace was 9:30. Granted, I was going down hill but I was still flying.

Last week, I signed up for a gym membership because I’m determined to get stronger in areas where I am anything but. I love, love, love the feeling of my legs getting stronger, like tree trunks. I want to improve my time, of course, but most importantly, I just want to get stronger.

Stay tuned. Watch these progress reports actually… progress.