There's nothing I enjoy much more than just being in or near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Something about the place calms my spirit and I leave a little piece of me every time I watch the mountains fade in my rear view. I was there for the weekend with my beautiful wife and had the unique opportunity to share a run with my favorite person in my favorite place on earth.
The weather was perfect for a run as we left our hotel. L was working on C25K and I committed to running along with her until she was finished and then piggybacking a 2 mile run of my own on top of that. We did a total of 3 miles together of combined walking and running. L ran a full mile twice! I was quite proud of her. There were some pretty nasty hills along our 3 mile out and back route. Thankfully they were all very short and were usually followed by a decent downhill stretch during which we could rest. Those first three miles really only served as an extended warm up for me. I didn't push myself anywhere near as hard as I've grown accustomed to. I actually rather enjoyed it. I was able to carry on a casual conversation the whole time, probably to the general dismay of my poor wife (and lone reader) who had to listen to my random babbling for 3 whole miles. She was a good sport though, and laughed at most of my goofball comments. Thanks my love!
After the 3 miles was up we parted ways. She went back to the hotel room to recover and shower while I picked up the pace for a 2 mile out and back in the other direction. My heart rate quickly jumped up to 160 after averaging below 140 for the first three miles. I picked up my pace to about 9:50ish/mile from the 13:20 we had averaged for the first 3 miles. Mile 4 was pretty easy with a fairly long downhill section until it flattened out. I completed it in 9:50. Mile 5 was a little harder, as I had already been out for 50 minutes. I still managed to pick up the pace just a little and pushed myself up the hill that made mile 4 so easy. I finished my 5 as I ran up the hill in to the hotel parking lot almost right at the 1 hour mark. I was pretty beat but my heart rate had only maxed out at 173. In retrospect, some nutrition and/or hydration around the 30-45 minute point probably would have been good.
Overall it felt good to do 5 miles. It was good to know I could go 40 minutes and then still have enough stamina to push myself for another 2 miles. I couldn't have dreamed of even doing the first 40 minutes a year ago. On top of that, it was beautiful location for a run and I hope to have the opportunity to do it again in the not too distant future. Sharing it with my wife made it that much more enjoyable.
The Stats: I did a total of 5.11 miles in 1:00:43 for an average pace of 11:53/mile. The final 2.1 or so miles on my own were done in 20:41 for an average pace of 9:51/mile.
Next Up: I wimped out this morning and didn't make it to the pool. I may go this afternoon. I woke up with a headache this morning and thought it better to skip the swim than push myself to do more than I should today and not be able to run tomorrow. Though it didn't exactly met the criteria of a long run in the plan I'm following, I'm counting Saturday's run as my Long Run in the Tim Detmer plan I linked to on Thursday. Tomorrow will be a tempo run - 35 minutes at 45 seconds slower per mile than my last 5K pace. My last 5K was 9:09/mile so I'll go for 35 minutes at about 9:55/mile. I've been pushing myself way harder than this, so it should be a breeze. Thursday will be the kicker - the VO2Max run. I'll be doing 10X400 Meter intervals at 5K pace minus 30 seconds per mile with short rest periods in between.
I'm going to work this plan for the next few weeks and see if it improves my next 5K time. That's tentatively planned for 4/30.
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