22 eclipsed

Tuesday: 22:41, 7'46/m
Today: 21:40, 7'27/m

With the help of a lot of coffee, I finally broke through the 22:30 wall, and then some.  and then a little more.  Today's run was actually 45 seconds faster than any home-course run this year.   I eclipsed the previous best of 22:24, and broke through the 22 minute mark for the first time with 21 seconds to spare.   Looking back, it ties my best "home-course" run from last year, and you have to go back to 2008 to find a better one.  

How nice it is to know I'm in as good as shape as I ever was last year.   It only took 115 miles to get back; 2 and a half months.  I thought it would take 3 ;)

But again, let me confess - I might have passed your typical drug test, but I was not drug-free.  Caffeine helps.  I had a lot of it tonight, and for the first mile I could barely feel my legs.  My pace was about 7:10.   I finally started "feeling it" around the 2 mile point, and by then - I just sucked it up and ran through the pain.  

Perhaps it was also due to running in the dark, but I felt a little off balance tonight; like I was damn near floating, even when I was running slightly up hill.   No - i wasn't smoking crack. It was just the coffee.  But still, the point of my story is - don't kid yourself.  Coffee is a drug.  And it helped me shave some minutes tonight.  It's a necessary ingredient to my 5Ks.   

I doubt I'll start coming in under 22 every run going forward, unless I have 3 cups of coffee before every run.....  But it was still a nice feeling and I'll take it.  Hopefully I'll return here soon enough without the extra help.