15 miles at 6:45 am with my running group. Weather=65 degrees at start rising to 72 degrees at finish, 47% humidity, 50 dew point, 4 mph wind, dark then sunny. Average pace=7:34/m.
mile 1- 7:57
mile 2- 7:28
mile 3- 7:29
mile 4- 7:23
mile 5- 7:30
mile 6- 7:37
mile 7- 7:35
mile 8- 7:28
mile 9- 7:24
mile 10- 7:23
mile 11- 7:37
mile 12- 7:26
mile 13- 7:44
mile 14- 7:30
mile 15- 7:55
Great run this morning. I can't believe I did it! The entire first half of the run my left quad was hurting me and I thought that I might injure it if I continued at this pace but then I decided to just risk it. I focused on my form because I figured that the biggest danger for injury would be if I got sloppy. I was in a great rythem.   The weather was perfect. I have a new ipod and it did not malfunction which was nice considering most of recent long runs I had ipod issues.Â
The first two miles it was Tim, myself, a girl whose name I forget, and 4 guys who run sub-7:00's. After the water stop the sub-7:00's took off. Around mile 5 the other girl said she was heading back because she only wanted to do 10. So I ran with Tim the rest of the way. We were the only people doing 15. The guys in front of us turned around at 6.5 miles.Â
I seriously was a little worried about how long I could keep up 7:30's and I was worried about my quad... But amazingly at the turn around, the pain in the quad completely went away.  Hmmmm.... weird.  Miles 7 through 11 felt awesome. I did have a burning feeling in both quads during this time, similar to what I feel when I do weights. I'll probably be really sore tomorrow.Â
Miles 11-15 were a sufferfest. Mile 11 had 3 short steep hills. The sun was starting to heat up the temp fast. It felt so much hotter than when we started.  I told Tim I couldn't maintain and he should go on if he felt like he wanted to speed up. He told me he wasn't going to leave and I wasn't going to slow down. Um, ok. So I didn't. Actually, it was really motivating.  Mile 12 had 1 steep hill which zapped me even further. At mile 13 my watch had us at 1:38:00. 2 miles left.  Let's do this!! I don't know how, but let's do it.
I was hanging in there fairly well until the final mile when I looked at my watch and saw current pace was 7:20. I shouldn't have done that because I think mentally I thought I couldn't do it anymore. I started to give up and the average pace slowed to 8:03 for the last mile when were at 14.5 miles. Then Tim said, "You have 1/2 mile left. Dig Deep. Speed up. Let's get it under 8." I said ok. I mustered everything I had. We had a final steep hill up the leeve and then a downward slope to the store. I finished the mile at 7:55. Average pace =7:34/m.
Awesome. I'm really happy with myself today. I feel completely wasted now of course. I did do a shot of protein when we finished and I drank a protein shake when I got home. I am trying to take it easy but my son's Chuck E Cheese birthday party is at 2:30 pm. Whew! By the time I'm done with this day, it will feel like I ran a full marathon! | 