Magic cocktail : Stepping Stones + PIIT 28 = PB?

[frenchvisitor]

I've been lurking an awful lot since I graduated 4 weeks ago as I injured my back and was pretty much on the IC only managing 1 or 2 runs a week and very little in strength / stamina, so I followed lots of posts and picked up on the idea of consolidating with the Stepping Stones podcast and trying PIIT 28 (piit28.com) for cardio and flexibility.

This week saw me back in the saddle, so I tried it out : PIIT 28 every day since Monday + 3 runs with Stepping Stones.

The first two runs were unremarkable, no different from previous ones, except that Runmeter shows that my pace was much more regular. Then this morning, after my rest day on PIIT 28, something had changed : I was no longer plodding, but "cycling" with my legs and I could feel that I was sailing along - almost a little too fast for my breathing, but I managed to sort it out. I gained 4 minutes on my usual circuit - that's almost a minute per kilometer faster than I usually do, so I'm down to 36 minutes for 5K instead of 40.

Next week, I'll be trying out the Speed and Stamina podcasts while continuing with PIIT 28 - I'll let you know if there are any more miracles.

Anyway, a big thank you to all of you out there - it's reading your posts that inspires and encourages the rest of us to persevere and little by little (and sometimes in bounds) to improve and enjoy running more and more - thank you all guys!