The Long Run

2.21 mi, 21:08, 9:33 avg

Just a very short run.  Out and back to the gate and then up and down my street doing random distances, picking it up on the return trip.  Legs a little sore from Saturday's race so keeping it light.

I have a stressful week ahead. I have to travel this evening to conduct training at a customer site tomorrow.  I perform this training one or two times a year, so not often enough to be good at it, but I get through it somehow each time.

2.5 mi, 23:12, 9:17 avg

Ran on the hotel treadmill in Warner-Robbins, GA.  Just enough running to avoid getting a 0 today.  Spent a few minutes on the stationary bike to warm up.

Training turned out ok, then I got on the road about 5:15 and headed back home arriving just before 11:00.

One more stressful thing this week - dentist appointment to deal with two loose crowns and a chipped tooth in addition to the usual cleaning.

5.42 mi, 51:44, 9:32 avg

Easy run with Joe and Jamie in the neighborhood.  Good to run with company, felt a lot easier than the past couple of days.

4.61 mi, 44:56, 9:45 avg

Evening run in my neighborhood.  Due to wanting to stay in bed a little longer and worrying about my dental appointment I postponed my run until the evening.  I don't do this very often and always feel a big risk of not doing it.

Fortunately, I did not blow it off.  Felt very slow and tight at the start (I'm usually able to get going easier when I run in the evening but not this time).  I basically did one big loop around my neighborhood with some added side streets.  When I got back to my house, ran to the end of Eveningwood, turned around overshooting my house again and ran out to the gate and then back home.  It felt really long for some reason.  Not that far but farther than 0.0

Dental appointment ok,  two crowns recemented back and made an appointment to add a third crown where my tooth chipped while on vacation.

6.21 mi, 57:06, 9:12 avg

Perfect feeling 66 degrees morning.  Slow first mile and felt like it would take me forever to get going.  I ran out of the neighborhood, right onto Duck Slough, and then left on Trinity Blvd and over to the new park with the path around the lake.  Then did 3 laps around the lake and wanted to run each one a little faster without looking at my pace or going all out.  9:31 pace first lap, then 8:52 pace second lap, and finally 8:05 pace for the last lap.  Each lap about 0.7 miles.  I felt pretty good on the last lap.  Felt not so good on the first lap and thought I would start slowing down.  Saw several ducks and other assorted birds.  Ran back home via Corporate and 54 rather than staying on Trinity Blvd.

 3:25:27,20.0 mi,  10:17 avg

(garmin stats - 3:21:27, 19.52 mi, 10:19 avg)

Note: several times on the run I paused my garmin and forgot to restart it, Jamie kept hers going ok and then I ran a little extra at the end to make up for it, might have actually been like 20.2 or 20.3

Decided to go with Jamie on her last 20 mile run training before her upcoming New Orleans marathon.  I'm going to do the Long Play 33 1/3 mile race the same day but closer to home.  Looking back at my training, it's been forever since I've done a 20 mile training run.  I think I have to go back to 2016.  I had one run this past summer where I tried to do 20 but ended up walking a lot and settled for 19 miles.  Today's run felt like it was going to end up that way.

Met Jamie about 6:30ish near the back gate, we ran out to 54 and then up Starkey Blvd and into Diane's neighborhood stopping at her Saturday "lemonade stand".  Weather felt cool at first but the humidity was soon noticeable.  Not too many runners out but said hi to a few here and there - Beka and Diane, Lee and Jackie, and then Bob, Claudia, and Melanie.

We continued on into the park and ran to the shelter so I could use the bathroom and maybe grab some water.  Smaller group today but Tom had a case of water which he brought out to share.

Headed back out onto the trail maybe for another mile and a half before turning around, trying to do the math to make sure we were going out far enough.  After leaving the shelter the easy pace was feeling difficult to keep so I picked it back up a little bit.  It felt harder at first but my stride was soon "reset" back to something more normal and comfortable.

A few times I cautioned Jamie that I'd most likely have to slow down and didn't want to slow her down, but she was fine with whatever.   A little bit past 14 miles, I started doing some run/walk which felt a lot easier and really didn't affect the pace that much because when I was running I was actually running instead of shuffling.

We came back to the little Longleaf church where I stashed my partial gatorade under the picnic table.  Jamie went ahead to the Circle K to get some water while I got my gatorade.  Was not looking forward to starting up again.  But, this time, it was ok, it was easy to get back on pace and it didn't feel like the harder I tried the slower I went.  Made it to the Circle K in time as Jamie had left and headed toward me, then we headed back for the final two miles.

We split up at the gate and I turned left towards home but did a little detour to the end of Eveningwood to make up a little and then some.

So, after a few ups and downs and a couple of lowpoints and hip flexors that felt like they'd get worse and worse, things got better, legs felt a little better and the last two miles were much less of a struggle.  A lot of it must have been in my head.  Bonus points for no chaffing on a humid day and no real soreness.

Picked up the boys for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings and then had Andy meet me at the oil change place to get my car and his truck oil changed.  Good to hang out for a little bit.