Long run. Average pace: 10:05/mile.
Weather from 8:42 am to 11:35 am: 33.8° - 39.2°. Humidity 40%. Wind 7 mph SW.
This turned into the run where I saw things I had not seen or noticed before. I was on the Highline Canal Trail and I had gone about 4 miles and was wishing for a bathroom. I was near my friend's inlaws' house and my friend had told me I could stop there for the bathroom if I ever needed to, but I was confident that I could remember which house it was, so I kept going. A little bit later I came to street the the trail crosses. I was wishing that there was a gas station on the street, but it's in a residential area and there are no businesses. However, as I approached the street I noticed a small parking lot. Because of the lack of businesses of any kind I figured the only purpose for the parking lot was to provide access to the trail. And then I noticed a port-a-potty in the parking lot. I'm sure it's a permanent fixture there. It was like I was wishing for a bathroom, and *poof*, one magically appeared. It even had toilet paper and hand sanitizer.
When I started out on the run I was undecided about whether to do 14, 15, or 16 miles. I figured I'd run 7 and then keep going if I felt like it to either 7.5 or 8 and turn around and whichever of those points I felt like. After the bathroom stop I was feeling pretty good, so I decided to go all the way to mile marker 8 and then turn around.
A little while later I saw something else I hadn't seen before on the trail. A man riding a horse and leading another horse. I knew that horses are ridden on the trail sometimes because I've seen evidence of it, and I've seen horses in fenced areas adjacent to the trail. I had just never seen a horse on the trail before. And then a little while later I heard some roosters crowing. I looked over and noticed a little pen with chickens in it that I had never noticed before. It's a little ways from the trail and there are a few trees in the way, so it's kind of hard to see, but the roosters were making enough noise that I noticed it today.
It's funny to me that there's this semi-rural area in the middle of the Denver metro area.
When I was finishing the 10th mile, I felt like slowing down, but I remembered something I read in Daniels' Running Formula last night that said, essentially, if you feel like slowing down, speed up. So I decided to pick up the pace just a little bit. I did that and found that I could maintain that pace, so I ran the slightly faster pace for the remaining 6 miles. Not to bore anyone, but to illustrate what I did, my splits were 10:52, 10:43, 10:10, 10:01, 10:28, 10:19, 10:24, 10:11, 10:26, 10:15, (here's where I picked up the pace) 9:56, 9:46, 9:32, 9:40, 9:32, 9:14. So what was supposed to be a long run at easy pace turned into a 10 easy/ 6 moderate progression run. I put those 6 miles in fast miles even though for a lot of people they wouldn't be fast, but for me in a run of that length, they were fast.
This is the highest mileage I have ever run in a week. | 