A shout-out to the joys of building resilience

I'm taking a moment to celebrate some achievements that are objectively unimpressive but contextually spectacular.

As of July of this year (when I stumbled on PP), for a varierty of reasons, I'd never been able to successfully run a mile with my HR below 150 - even "running" slower than I could walk.

Yesterday I ran 5.25 miles at 144bpm. I averaged 12:23/mi, which is totally laughable (I usually sustain a still-pokey 9:20; my goal is 8:00). But in the context of long-term athletic development and cardiovascular endurance - and of doing my first 70.3 next year - it's orders of magnitude of improvement. I'll never be an elite endurance athlete, but I can be *an* endurance athlete. I'll take it.

Plus, after years at 190+ bpm... it's real nice to go run and not feel like you're about to die the whole time.

As an added bonus, this is also the longest I've gone without injury. I can now begin to see groundwork being laid for the "durability" Dixon references so frequently. No program is a magic cure, but I do feel more holistically resilient and strong - enough to sign up for my first ultra next year as well as my first 70.3, because I feel rock solid certain that I can do it.

Anyway, it's cool to see the program working, not just in terms of race success but also general overall health.

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