This chik is Tough - PR tough!

So I'm still revelling in my new Half Marathon PR! Still blown away about HOW much quicker I was. But when I come down off my little floaty fluffy clouds I realise what a high bar I've set myself now!!! It's going to be a tough one to top!!

I have a few theories about how and why I was so much quicker. I literally ran at a pace I've never achieved before!

I wrote last week about the detox I did on the week leading up to the race. It was bad planning and bad timing really with the races coming up, but I detoxed for 7 days and finished 2 days beforehand. It wasn't a diet but it cut a lot of foods I am used to eating. Its not like I eat crap normally but the detox was fuelling me from food sources in quantities I'm not used to. Most of the detox diet could be sustainable long term and could go some way to fuelling an athlete healthily but I was concerned about it affecting my performance (ha - little did I know?!) I was concerned about lack of energy and for the first few days of detox I was definitely feeling it. Once I added meat back in it went much better. One of the results of the detox was a 4lb weight loss and it's this that I consider as a factor to my speediness. I mean I ran with 4lbs less weight than I trained with....

Another KEY factor was my new lucky running shirt!!! I was proud to be wearing my new Team Tough Chik gear! It's first race outing no less! And honestly, you saw the photos....it wasn't really the weather for it!! But come hell or high water (and there was plenty of the latter!) I was wearing my team shirt! And sporting a team tattoo to boot - which made me feel extra tough! And really, the proof is in the pudding on the clock! Can't argue with that! Tough Chiks clearly haul ass!

Lastly, maybe that rain is my lucky charm. I always shy away from it during training. I've been fortunate to avoid it - either it's not actually raining when I head out first thing or I re-schedule training runs to avoid it. But that's 3 Half's when it's rained and each gave me a PR (and the one that didn't, it wasn't raining)....And this was it was raining the hardest and it gave me the biggest improvement. This is fool-proof logic people!! Or maybe I just wanted to get the heck out of it!!

I'm linking up to Jill's Fitness Friday...