I did another timed mile again today... 9:01! And then I took a short walking break and finished two miles in 19:52. I finished up a third mile, with some more walk breaks, at 32:52.

It's hard to imagine that 9 minute miles is easy peasy for some people, even when they first start running. It's taken me quite some time to get up to that speed and I don't think I'd be able to keep it up for much longer at this point. Granted, I didn't run that first mile at a steady pace today; I started at 6.0 and gradually increased the speed as I went along, finishing up with a short sprint at 8.0. Back in high school, I spent an entire summer getting my mile time to 8:30. The fastest I think I've ever run a mile is 8:22, and right now that seems SO fast. Yet, it's a piece of cake for some people. It's kind of frustrating. I know that I need to focus on me and my pace and my improvements, but I wish I knew what it was that made some people faster. I improved my form a few months ago, during my ten miler training, and was able to easily drop some time after that. But I don't know what there is left to do except to just keep working at it, trying to push a bit harder each time.