How I know the new plan is working: Freezeroo 8 miler Report (5k, 10k, 8 mile PRs)

I flew home last night for the weekend. Primary purpose: Kathleen's bridal shower. But, I am also 3 weeks into Boston training, which was preceeded by 2 weeks of base training. Sarah wanted me to do a race to see where I am at pace-wise before we go back to track workouts in Cycle 2. So, I signed up for the Freezeroo 8 miler to do this morning before the shower. I did my warmup at home this morning, and it was snowing a lot and windy. I had my doubts at this point about breaking an hour, but I had to remind myself that I tend to doubt myself the most is during the warmup. I just always wonder if I can really move that fast during the race. But time to push the doubts aside and turn to positive thinking. At check-in, I bumped into Heather, who posts in the Boston forum and is also from Rochester. We've been at a few of the same races, and we even figured we would finish around the same time. And then it was time to begin. We fell into stride together quite quickly, and thought we ought to try to run the whole race together and see what happens. We went through the first mile in 6:53. Oh my goodness - that is faster than my 5k pace. 2 miles in 13:155. At this point, Heather said, "Well, we are either going to run a killer race or have a killer crash-and-burn." We decided to see if we could keep it up, and push each other through the hard parts. We went through the 5k in 21:46. For those of you keeping score, my 5k PR is 21:53. Did I just break a 5k pr in an 8 mile race? Heather was close to hers, and we started to wonder how long this pace would last. Going into mile 4, the wind started to pick up. But, once we went through 4 miles, we were halfway through, and it started to feel like a hard run. Really hard. And 4 miles still felt like a long way to go. We got to mile 6 in 42:40, and while there was no marker for the 10k, I know PRed there too (old PR was 44:45). At this point, Heather said "I think we have our sub-hour." No kidding. But how long would it take? The wind started to pick up, and I started to just want to be done - I was pushing really hard. And...there was NO mile 7 marker! As we got into the 50 minute area, I started to wonder, "Have I really slowed down that much?" Then at 52 minutes, I realized, "There couldn't have been one. Just keep going and hopefully you'll hit the finish line soon." Heather had about 5 yards on me at this point, and I just could not push any more to catch up. The minutes went by slowly, and finally, the building complex appeared. This is me with a few yards to go. And then I finished, what a relief, in...

57:40. 7:12 pace for an 8 mile race. Here is me and Heather right after we finished. Big grins for sure - neither of us were expecting to do that well (Heather is coming off an injury too and also getting ready for Boston).

It was a phenomenal race and confirmation that my new form of training is working. 4 days of running, and double days of cross training 3 days a week = a great new method. And the bridal shower was also wonderful - my best friend is getting married in 3 weeks! Bacherlorette party (aka drinks with a few friends around town) is tonight - going to be great! Talk about a great weekend!