T=50-53 degrees. Sunny. Humility=60%. Wind=5 MPH. Great weather to run! WU 3 miles. WD 2 miles. Ran 12 miles @8:00" pace in training for the first time! Could have run 3-4 miles more at this pace today. Ran mostly at conversational medium effort on the flat and downhills; medium-hard effort on the slightly low grade inclines; and as fast as I could on the last mile. Andy was helping to pace the first 8.5 miles at about 8:00" pace. Felt great. There was only a mild side stitch starting at mile 5 but it only last a couple minutes. Run with Mat the last 3.5 miles at about 7:43" pace (27 minutes). Still feeling great after 11 miles so I decided to run all out on the last mile and it hurt. I wonder if it is better for me just to maintain the same speed and comfortable effort level to finish this run rather than running all out on the last mile to chop 45-50 seconds off but feeling terible afterward. After all, it's only a training run. Left calf wanted to cramp but went away after 2 miles easy warm down. Since I couldn't run this training run at 8:00" pace in the last 2 years so I prepared for this as I would with a race: Taper, hydrate, and eat well days before the run. Woke up early to have plenty of time to warm up. I even placed my own energy drinks on the course. The weather is so nice to run and I have no excuses. Everything finally worked beautifully as planned! What a great training run. I am so happy. They said third time is a charm and finally the BIG monkey is off my back! NOTE: 8:00" pace for first 7.5 miles. 7:50" pace from mile 7.5 to 8.5. Last 3.5 miles in 27 min or 7:43" pace. Total 1:34:50 for 12 miles. | 