Absolutely perfect weather - 40 degrees at the start, warmed up to 50 by the end, and less than 5 mph wind! My new long-run strategy: start slow and get faster. I played a little game trying to improve each mile a few seconds from the previous one. By the end I was getting pretty good at it by just staying close to what I wanted for most of the mile, then fine-tuning the last 0.1 or so. Garmins are fun.
Splits were 8:45, 8:43, 8:40, 8:37, 9:02, 8:33, 8:31, 8:29, 8:27, 8:21, 8:06, 7:52, 6:48, 0:55 (7:47 pace for 0.12). Overall pace 8:22. 1:49:53 total.
I got basically the same overall pace as last week but this run was fun and I felt great the whole time. Last week I felt like crap for the last 6 miles. In mile 5, I dropped my cell phone trying to grab a Gu so that's the reason for the 9:02. It broke into about 3 pieces and I had to fumble around forever trying to get everything back in its pouch - stupid fuel belt. I was pretty annoyed that it ruined my little game. In the last mile I was just trying to go a smooth tempo pace but I kept noticing the pace drop - it really felt great so I decided to murder the last third of a mile or so and got a great 1-mile split (6:48) for me, especially given that it was mile 13. Then jogged in the stub to make it about a HM.
This run was pure enjoyment - I know I'll probably never get weather like that again but I'm hoping that I can have that much fun in windier conditions as long as I take it easy at first like I did today. In other words hopefully the strategy, not the conditions, made it fun. By the way, thanks for the advice last week, everyone. I also feel 100% better physically after today's run versus last week where I limped around all day. Ok, enough words.
WM - 44.1 | 
