Is it the weather or the marathon base?

Sooo.....I am running fast and I am loving it!!!

Let's back up a little. Over the last 2-3 weeks my runs have been a very consistent, every other day, run. I wanted to give my body, especially my knees, proper time to recover from the marathon. After this weekend's run, my mileage for the month is about 50(okay, 48.4 but who is counting?)

Here is the kicker, I am running faster. AND easier!

I should put this into proper context and in the interest of full disclosure; my marathon training pace/long runs were done at about an 11:30 pace. Who cares about that, that is the past, lets get to the meat and potatoes!

So, two weeks after finishing my marathon, I run 5K's on back to back weekends. 2nd 5K I drop a 25:54 time for a 8:20ish pace. My regular weekly runs with Cubbie are at average 10 min pace. We have been shaving minutes, (Yes, literally minutes, plural!) off of our time on our regular 7 mile loop. Example? Sure! Average time on 7 mile loop in August was 1:17 -1:20 on any given day. Route PR was 1:13:50, Thursday night we ran 1:12:01...Yesterday we ran a 7 mile route with two passes over the bridge in 1:10.
Here's the best part, we are having a BLAST!

Gee Snail, I want what you have. How ever can I obtain the joy of running you seem to have stumbled across?

So glad you asked dear reader, now if you will send me $1.99 in an envelope addressed to....No, that's not right, you have to give it away to keep it!

So this is what is different...

First of all, Mother Nature has been VERY kind to us here in Coastal Georgia, the weather as of late has been fantastic. Our run yesterday began with temps in the 50's. Perfect weather to run, humidity is almost non-existent.

Secondly, I just logged 550-600 miles of base/marathon training miles over the last 6-7 months, my body is ready to go.

Thirdly, Cubbie and I have begun running with our buddy Ryan. I will refer to him as "Crackhead" from here on out. Crackhead is one of the top local triathletes and for some reason he has decided he will run with us snails on occation. No, it was not court ordered....Anywho, he has helped push us to run faster without overly pushing, if that makes any sense.

Combining all of these factors, we (Cubbie and I) are running faster and we are having a blast doing it! I have labeled this "The Winter of Speed" and am working towards some Spring races hoping to drop my PR's. Not to get ahead of myself, I am enjoying every run as I firmly believe one of the reasons I am enjoying running right now is that I do not have too much structure in place...yet.

One foot in front of the other, one step at a time.