This 16-miler was a lot better than the last one. I ran with friends, from a friend's house, and he was kind enough to drive the route and set out frozen water bottles for us along the way. We did two different out-and-back courses from his house. We had beautitful scenery, and it was a great change of pace. The first 8 miles were pretty hilly. We ran up into the foothills of Mummy Mountain and over to the other side and back. We had a pit stop at his house for cold water, and then did another flat 8-mile loop.
It got hot toward the end, of course, but I was able to finish strong, unlike last week. Our average pace was 9:54, which I thought was pretty good, especially given the hills. Average for the second eight miles was probably under 9:50. My Garmin is in the other room, and I'm too tired to go get it. :-) My last mile, in 90 degrees, was 9:17.
I had Gu at mile 5 and mile 11, and lots of Gatorade and water.
Afterwards, we cooled off in our host's pool (I went off the diving board!). Then he made us breakfast!
Then I came home and had an ice bath with TWO bags of ice! I read an article in Running Times about how we need to learn to embrace pain to improve. I am always good at doing that on long runs (that's probably why I run only marathons and half marathons!), but I need to work on welcoming the pain in tempo runs. Bring it on!
I had a great run, and now it's time for a nap! |