10 miles on Saturday

Wow. I'm really being a lazy slacker with this blog.

Saturday morning I met the Philly Fit crew for a 10 mile run. I was a little worried since I haven't done a long run in several weeks. Luckily, the weather was pretty nice, much less humid than usual, so things were looking good. There was a fairly small crowd today and I found that there were even fewer people than usual who ran at my pace. I did manage to hook up with a buddy just before mile 2 and we ran together for most of the day.

The first two miles [out and back on the Perkiomen towards VF] were good -- nice and easy. Things started getting a little tougher at mile 3 where we hit the gravel and the slighly rolling hills. They don't last long though and the next few miles weren't bad either. The rocky path and the shade make for a nice run, I think. Less pounding than the paved trail and a lot less hot. The last mile before the turnaround was a little hard but I think that was mostly because we saw the people heading back. Somewhere between mile 5 and 6 I had my first Accel Gel. YUM! It was chocolate flavor, which I normally don't like, but this was surprisingly tasty. It was thin with an oddly gritty consistency but I kind of liked that.... it was a little less slimy than Gu because of the grit. Anyway, it was a new thing because it has protein and carbs in it. I'd give it thumbs up.

The return trip didn't go as well as the first half of the run. My partner was having trouble both aerobicly and with her knee and we took a lot more walk breaks than earlier in the day. Eventually it got to a point where I think we walked at least a half mile and maybe more. That's when she just let me go ahead of her and told me not to feel guilty. I did this, just over a mile from the finish, and I it was really difficult to run at that point. All the walking had my brain checked out of running mode so I really struggled that last mile and I'm sure it was more mental than physical.

All in all a pretty good day. My legs felt fine -- I was slightly worried about my IT band at about mile 6 but nothing came of it. I didn't even need ice or Advil.

Time: 2:04. I would have liked to have been faster but ten miles is ten miles.