Saturday, August 05, 2006

Long Run - 12 miles

Today was the first time I've put on my sneakers since the last long run. We had record high heat this week -- in the high 90s with heat index way over 100 every day. It just isn't worth it for me to run in conditions like that.

Today was fabulous for a run! We started at 7 and ran on a shady trail. The temp was low and so was the humidity. You really couldn't have asked for better summer weather.

The run went pretty well. I felt good through most of it and still feel good now, although I'm pretty tired. When I finish drinking my iced latte I think I'm going to take a short nap. Maybe a long nap.

I went out slow and ran with a guy I'd never run with before. He was awesome and set a steady pace that brought us in at about 2:17 for the 12. My sportbrain says that we only went 10.5 miles but I know that's totally wrong. We ventured past the 5 mile mark on the outbound portion and ran at least 10 minutes past it so I know we were very close to 12 miles. I felt really good for the first 9 and pretty good overall for the last three but if I hadn't been with my running buddy I'm sure I would have taken more walking breaks than we did. We hardly walked at all the whole time.

The pace we set was just about dead on with my PR for the half marathon (had we continued the extra 1.1 miles) and if I turn in a performance at VA Beach where I finish just a hair under 2:30 again I think I'll be OK with that if I run as consistantly as I did today. That's an accomplishment in itself for me. Still, I think I can do better on race day.

On a side note -- 3 months from now I should be more than halfway through the NYC Marathon!

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