Reverse Splits

I always thought that the more consistant I was with my running and the more sleep I got the more energized and better I would feel. This hasn't been the case over the last couple of weeks. I have been feeling and looking extremely tired. Isn't all this exercise supposed to make me feel like a million bucks and isn't my skin supposed to look healthier? I realized that although I had cut out many of my "unhealthy" eating habits I still was not giving my body enough of the good stuff. I was eating less bad but not enough of the good. I was drinking my staples of milk and water but was falling short of drinking enough water/propel to replenish what I lost during my workouts. I woke up yesterday and said to myself that I was tired of feeling bad. I vowed to make this week different. I have started by monitoring my drinking habits and eating more fruits and vegetables. Just those two things alone have already helped me and it is only day 2. With all this feeling bad I figured I would just go easy and run a simple 5 miles. I warmed up and then felt the urge to run intervals. I don't know how or where I got the motivation to put speed into my workout. After running 1 1/4 miles for warm up I did 4 quarter mile repeats with a quarter mile recovery in between. I cooled down the rest of the way home to give me a total of 5 miles. The goal was to make each quarter mile interval a little faster than the one before. This is called reverse splits. My intervals were 1:37 (6:28/mile), 1:36 (6:24/mile), 1:30 (6:00/mile) and 1:26 (5:44/mile). The last one really surprised me. Needless to say I was thrilled to finally push the 6:00/mile barrier. Now if only I could run a sub 6:00 mile for a complete mile like I did back in High School. Maybe someday I will do that again but not now! Today I am just happy that I was able to see my watch go below 6:00/mile pace. What a motivational day this was!!