9.5 miles at 7am with my running group at Trinity River. Weather= 63F, 71% humidity, 53 dew point, 7mph wind, sunny. Average pace=8:10/m. (8:19, 8:01, 8:00, 8:06, 8:06, 8:02, 8:10, 8:05, 8:23, 8:47) Decided to meet the group today. I haven't done a Saturday morning run with them since December. At first when I got there there weren't any of the people I normally run with standing around. I walked up to a group of ultra runners I'm friendly with who run like 20 miles on Saturdays at like 11:00 pace. I talked to them a little while and they said, "oh, you can't be here, you're too fast." I never know what to say when people say this to me. I said, oh I'm not fast... I've actually gotten really slow from a winter of not running much. Then they started asking me what I thought was slow and what I thought not running much was. Now, I know from experience that there is just no good way to answer this without it being awkward ... I said, "well, I suppose speed is relative. I'm not concentrating on speed right now though." I get the feeling that some of them were thinking I was snobby or something. I should have told them that I admire them for running ultras... Eventually, Tim showed up. He said Ashley was still injured and went to 24 fitness for spin class instead. A guy named Ross that I run with sometimes also showed up. We agreed to do 10 today. After the first 2 miles I put my iPod on full blast and made it a tempo run. I got ahead of the guys for much of miles 2-8 but they weren't too far behind. After mile 8 though, I bonked. I ran the final two miles on fumes. Ross went ahead at mile 8. Then Tim went ahead at 9. My foot had blood blisters at the end of it. I think I need new socks. I'm pretty happy though because the blisters were the only problem I had. My legs felt really good all day! The 8:00 pace felt like what 7:15 did a few months ago but I'll take it. I'll get back up to speed eventually. I love running! | 