First pre-work run today. Finally I managed to get out the door before work, and not fall for the "too busy" excuse I've had for the last 3 years.....  The same 5 mile loop, a little cooler as it was still overcast. Started creaky but after 1/2 mile felt a bounce in my step for the first time in a long while. Ended up being a great run (relatively speaking). Ran strong thru the first 3 miles and the last two were a little more of a slog but still managed to keep a steady pace.  Progress over the last few months now looks like this......

Slow, but steady progress

Still plodding along. Ran my standard 5 miler yesterday and getting a little faster. Still slow, but now actually running the whole way, no walk breaks, no stopping to look at the view. If I can keep this up and get out there 4-5 times/week things should start to move a little more quickly (hopefully!).

Here's the mile times for 3 runs from June, July and August. In June you can see it all went to crap after 2 miles, In July I could drag slowly thru miles 3-4, but now it's pretty constant throughout. Each of these was at about the same average heart rate, but with much less "standing around waiting for traffic" time in the recent run.

Benchmark Run - some signs of progress

So my standard, benchmark run has always been a loop from my house that is about 5.2 miles. When I was in shape this was my easy recovery run, or for times when I didn't feel like "really running" - Just a simple 5 miler at 7:30-8:00 minutes/mile.

Now it has become my challenge run - for when I'm feeling like going for it! So today I decided it was a challenge day. Goal was to do the full 5+ miles without stopping or walking except at the water fountain after 3.5 miles. So I set off, hoping for lots of traffic at the crossings.....

Last time I ran this was on June 5th. That was a real slog - lots of walking and an average pace (excluding stops) was 10:38. Today was 9:37, so a full minute faster in about 2 months - and HR was the same at 157 average. Not too bad in terms of progress, but still a long way from where I need to be.

Data......