13.5 miles at 6am. Weather= 80F rising to 90F, 60-70% humidity, little wind, dark then sunny. Average pace=8:33/m.
Meet my friends at the running store. We didn't run the route with the store because they were starting at 6:30 and my friends wanted to start at 6. Mile 1 was 9:00 pace. Mile 2 was 8:30. Mile 3 thru 6 were ranged beteen 8:15 and 8:25. I was kinda running by myself ahead of everyone else for these miles. My intention was to do a medium/hard effort 12 mile run. In the heat, 8:15 felt like 1/2 marathon pace to me. I was just trying to focus on my breathing and form trying to get my heartrate into a rythm at 8:15. I was doing pretty good but my quads were burning, an indication that I still have more strength training milage build-up before I get back to where I was.
At mile 6 we stopped at this hot water fountain. It was not refreshing. We stopped for awhile. Everyone in the group wanted to do different milage for the day and go different routes. Finally we decided to get off the trail and go into this neighborhood (Tanglewood) because it had shade.
When I started running again, mile 7 was 8:25 but it felt much harder. The rythm I had going was totally lost. Then when we crossed the river and started on the other trail, I landed on this rock and somehow a blister or something ripped open. I could tell I was bleeding. Great. Mile 8 was 8:41 because I starting to loose focus. There were some turns and I'd never been that way before so I didn't know where we were going.
At this point we split up. Some of the girls were doing 16-17 miles and some of us wanted to do less. Miles 9-11 were average 8:30. It was nice being in the shade but we were running on streets and the angle of the street was starting to make my feet hurt worse. My shoes were soaking wet with sweat. Mile 11 we made it back to the river trail and the guy we were running with, Matt, stopped at this restaraunt telling his sister just to pick him up on her way home. Ha, ha! It was really hot. At this point probably 90 degrees.
I kept going with Melissa. I had a final gust of energy at mile 12 and I did 8:30, which at this point felt like 7:30. Then I crashed. I was expecting water at the end of 12 and I didn't see it. My legs hurt. I was hot. My feet were in very bad shape and one was bleeding. Mentally, I just didn't care anymore. I told Melissa I was going straight to the store. I didn't care if I was short to the intended 15 she and I said we were going to do. Melissa wanted to still do 15. She went one way and I went another. I did 9:15 pace the 13th mile and 8:45 the last 1/2.
It was a good workout. My legs were sore afterwards. Blisters and a cut on my foot were my only major issue. I'm just in the milage buildup period so I'm pretty happy with what I did. I'll do 14-15 next week's long run. Then 16-17 the following week. Just ramp it up gradually.
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