A Long Run

Today was my day to do my long run.  My goal was 10 miles, but with being sick and still having a bit of a cough I allowed myself to be happy with 7 as long as I got 3 in tomorrow to reach my goal of 20 miles for the week.

The sun was out for the first time in almost a week so that had me pumped up, and the fact that it was only 28 degrees motivated me, too.  With all the cool stuff I've bought over the last year or two for winter running, I like having the opportunity to actually use it.

Another nice thing about the weekend runs is that it's not going to be pitch black out so I get to wear my iPod and run to music.  Most times I don't because I want to be able to hear the packs of wild deer or raccoons if they try and attack me from the woods.  Daylight means more cars, so I have to pay attention to that, but I don't have to worry about critters as much.

I put on two pairs of my long stretch pants, three long sleeve shirts, my running jacket with the cool little iPod holder, and hat and gloves.  Turned out it was too much, I was sweating my butt off during most of the run.  Obviously I can handle even colder temperatures!  Bring it on, baby.

Since I haven't run a good, long way in almost three weeks, so I told myself to go out easy.  My McMillan calculater showed my target Long Run pace range to be between 7:52 to 9:05.  I decided I would be happy with 8:45 and thought that would help me make 10 miles.  But like I always do, I hit the half mile mark under 4 minutes.  Dude. SLOW DOWN.  I don't know why I have trouble running at slower goal pace when I'm alone.  I need to be better at this because it's how I'm going to get faster.  I need these long runs at the appropriate pace in order build my endurance, while recovering from the more intense speed and hill workouts.

Well, I forced myself to slow down and just relax.  Meanwhile, Green Day started playing which made it tough to slow down.

I reached the end of the street outside of my neighborhood and turned the corner to go up and cross Midlothian Turnpike for the first time.  This happens right at Mile 1 which I hit in 7:58.  Sheesh.  I thought I was slowing down.

Michael Jackson started up in my ears with Wanna Be Starting Somethin' as I tried to get across the street.  I was clear from one side and got across to the little median and turn lane but the other light had changed and traffic started pouring along.  So I just ran up the turn lane, checking over my shoulder now and then.  I got close to the next light with no way of getting across, so I kind of slowed up and the music was great so I kind of skipped to a stop then bounced in place.  I have no clue what got me right then, but I did a quick spin and started to dance like I was in my living room or something.  The cars came to a stop at the red light so I bounced off in between them to waves, laughs and someone honked.

Too funny.

I tooled on down by the high school and passed a couple of other runners who had just started out.  From there I cut down through a neighborhood that has a steady incline for about half a mile then drops down for about half a mile until I come back out the other side down by the interstate and community college where I get my first good uphill run.  I was at Mile 3 and decided to change my watch to the average pace and saw that I was at 8:10.  Still too fast and I could feel it when I got to the top of that hill.  I was breathing hard and still had the hardest hills in front of me.  I can go as slow as a 9 minute average, so I pulled back some more and had to tell myself repeatedly that going easy was the smart thing and would be good for me.

I went the "long" way on the next turn because I decided I would commit to going at least 9 miles and used that to keep my pace in check.  I just loved the music with some of my new additions of Neon Trees: Animal, Jack White: Shakin, and Dion: The Wanderer.

There were a lot of people out running and walking so it was kind of social with lots of waves.

I got hot though, but really liked the fact that my new Nike running gloves were warm.  My hands get cold first and sometimes it's pretty uncomfortable.  But not today.  I almost felt like taking them off for a bit, but it was below freezing out so I figured I'd just leave 'em on and put up with being a little warm.

I cruised up the last steep hill of my run between Mile 6 and 7 and was still running along 8:15 pace.  I told myself I could back way off and still come in faster than 8:45 pace and go the full 10 miles that would be nice Little Victory for the day.  I still had a lot of uphill running to do through the last neighborhood, but it's not real steep.  Just a mile of steady climb.

I got back up to Midlothian Turnpike and this time I didn't have any trouble timing the traffic and just needed a little burst to get across.  I always like that.  A quick sprint here and there just to jazz things up.  I rolled along back down to my house and saw that I would be right at 9 miles, and my hips were tired.  I could tell I haven't gone this far in a while, but I felt good, so I decided to bypass my neighborhood's entrance and run up one street and down by the railroad tracks.  I trotted down and back out and only had to run a little ways past my house to get to the full 10 miles.

One of the neighborhood kids was going to find his friends and decided to run along next to me for a little ways and we high fived as I turned to my house.

Just a little something that made me smile and add a little more fun to a successful run.

10:06 miles in 1:23:30 and 8:18 pace.  I really felt great about going the whole 10 miles and holding a pretty decent pace for having such a long layoff.

I knew I'd get back on track in short order but now I'm feeling more confident about that.  Although I have my first Short Hill workout coming up next week I think I'm ready to wade into that pain again.

So tomorrow I've got church and will try to get my sprint workout in during the afternoon.  I need to keep that piece in my routine so I've got those additional muscles for when I begin the 100 and 200 workouts.  I'm really looking forward to that!  Plus I have a couple of indoor meets coming up that I could do and would like the opportunity to see what I can turn an 800 in.

The work continues!