Sunday, March 22, 2015

Run #18 long run

Total: 7 miles; 1:31:43 Pace 13:06; run/walk using my 4:00/2:00 ratio, except I did an extra 2 minutes of walking at around the 40:00 mark, which bumped me up over the 13:00 pace. No biggie.

So I was actually considering running outside but that went out the window when I realized it was still in the 30's. I've done cold(er) running, I have nothing to prove. Plus those kind of things without prep/practice can send my lungs into a fit. Treadmill it is!

Particularly pleased, point 1: On weekends I'm with BB, sometimes I want to spend every second of it with him. (And that's not a bad thing.) But I knew that running in the afternoon wouldn't be good (had work stuff to do) and that I really should get it done. Besides, he totally supports my running, so just go already! Do what ya need to do! And I listened to that voice inside. And guess what? BB was super supportive as always. He's my #1 cheerleader. (Thank you, babe.)

Particularly pleased, point 2: after a long week of very little sleep (work; big cookie order), having had two nights of 8 hours of sleep felt great. Legs felt fresh. "You should speed up," my ego said. Common sense replied "No. Just stick to the pace for your 'long slow run.' It's not called that so you can speed up." So I stuck to the plan. Now is not the time, you need to make sure you cover the distance...speed training can come later, after this race.

Particularly pleased, point 3: I was a bit nervous about this run. I haven't run this far since NY. When it started to feel a little tough, I used a similar mantra that I did for that marathon--"this one mile"--focusing only on the immediate and not the larger task. Only this time I would say "this 4 minutes. You can run for these 4 minutes, right?" And it worked!!! 

Particularly pleased, point 4 (last one): I'd said that I'd run between 6.5 and 7 miles, knowing that a 2-mile increase from last week's long run is a bit higher than the recommended 'no more than 10% increase in miles each week.' But I got miles to put in before this half marathon. At 6.5, I berated the notion of quitting, KNOWING I could make it to 7, and knowing that looking back at that 6.5, I would know that I could have gone on but didn't. And so I did it. And it's also nice to know that at 7 miles, that's more than half the distance of the half marathon.

Feeling good. Slow, but good. Good progress.  Yay!

Miles this month: 23
Miles this year: 65.8

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