Loooong Run. Average pace: 9:23.
Weather: 42°F, 56% humidity, minimal wind, overcast.
Why do I do this to myself? I am beat.
I felt sluggish at the start of this run. The sluggishness eventually diminished, but I never felt great the whole time. I was tired by the time I was half-way through, but I just kept going. The trail was in good condition, so that was nice. Since it was Friday mid-morning I saw a lot of moms with strollers and older walkers on the trail. When I run on Saturday mornings I see more runners. I also saw some guys playing baseball and some people playing tennis. Usually, the baseball diamond and tennis courts are empty when I go past them. And there was water in parts of the canal and I even saw two ducks.
Oh man, my son just got home from school. How did so much of the day get gone already? I haven't even had lunch yet. This always happens when I take a day off from work. I think I'm going to get all these things done, and before I know it, the day is over.
When I had about 4.5 miles to go, I got a text message from my husband (I carry my cell phone when I run). It said, "You go girl! You can do it (si, lo puedes hacer)." This has reference to this bit from SNL. So when I got that message, I raised up my arm and said outloud, "Si, lo puedes hacer!" in the voice of a cartoon mouse. It was kind of fun and gave me a spring in my step for at list a little while. Maybe that will become my mantra during the marathon.
With a little less than a mile left, I tripped crossing a street. I got right up and finished crossing the street and then stood for a minute to collect myself, then finished my run. I was not badly hurt. But I seem to be getting clumsy in my old age. I need to learn to pick up my feet more, I guess.
After the run I forced myself to take an ice bath. I didn't have a lot of ice, but the water was cold enough that the ice I had didn't melt readily. It wasn't terrifically deep - deep enough to cover my lower legs, but not deep enough to cover my massive thighs. I managed to stay in there for 3 minutes. But I followed it with a hot bath. I hope that's an acceptable thing to do.
I won't bore you with all my splits, but I will tell you that they were mostly between about 9:20 and 9:35, but my last two miles were my fastest, at 9:01 and 9:00.
Sasha said I would get more out of shorter long runs at a faster pace than I would doing really long runs. However, I feel like I need to go over 20 a couple of times before the marathon so that I learn to run for an extended period of time, and so that I'm mentally prepared to go the distance. So I'm alternating long runs at an "easy" pace with slightly shorter long runs with big chunks at marathon pace. | 