OK y’all. Tomorrow will officially mark two weeks since I began fitness boot camp [READ:#RapOnTheRun: Fitness Boot Camp Day One: The 7 Minute Fitness Test]. My goals in attending boot camp is to use cross training and strength training to help me get faster and leaner in order to improve my next marathon finish time [READ: #RapOnTheRun: I Need To Run Faster, I Need To Get Leaner].

This morning I went out for an 8 mile run. It is the longest run I’ve done since completing my first full 26.2 mile marathon. The marathon recovery program I’m using generally restricts runs longer than 90 minutes in the first four weeks post marathon. I ran the race on March 16, so I’m right at the tail end of race recovery.

I’ve only been going to fitness boot camp 2 weeks and can already see improvement in my pace. As y’all can see in the finish results above from my running app (originally posted with a video on my ‘Gram), today’s average pace was 12:46 min/mile. My fastest mile was 11:36 min/mile. Shawty, I ain’t never hit a sub-12 min/mile before today!

My marathon training runs time averaged around and above a 13 min/mile, and my marathon finish time was 15:46 min/mile [READ: #RapOnTheRun: 2014 Tobacco Road Marathon Review].

To be totally transparent, I did push hard on today’s run just to see how fast I could go. During the run, my legs felt stronger and lighter. During fitness boot camp sessions, our instructor has had us doing stadium stair sprints. On some of those stair runs, we carry 15 to 25 pound kettle balls. We’ve also done a lot of core exercises, speed work and circuit training in the past two weeks.

Fitness boot camp runs for another two weeks. It will be interesting to see what my fitness test results will be at the last session. Based on the past two weeks, I’m hoping to see even more improvement!

Y’all can stay tuned to my Twitter (@nancioishiphop), ‘Gram (@nancioishiphop), Facebook (Nanci O Is Hip Hop) and the blog for all updates.

#RapOnTheRun