I decided on a Saturday morning run this week for my long run. I really wanted Sunday to do absolutely nothing of any value. As I did with my last long run, I planned for at least an hour with anything over that being bonus time. My plan calls for 3 times my 5K time which is pretty close to 90 minutes.
The weather was beautiful. It was probably in the mid-50s when I started and I'm guessing it had gotten up to at least 60 by the end of the run.
I started out with my typical warm up. Once I started running I just tried to maintain a comfortable pace. My comfortable pace this morning was much faster than last weeks comfortable pace. I was very conservative last week, though. I wasn't sure what it would feel like to run that long so I kept my pace very slow. This week, I had last weeks experience to build on, so I upped my pace to what I thought I could maintain for at least an hour. That turned out to be almost right at 10:00/mile. It hasn't been very long since I was hoping to be able to run one mile at a 10 minute pace, and now that pace feels like a comfortable jog.
I did a full two laps of the park again. I ventured about 1/3 mile out of the park between my first and second laps because the parking lot of the ball fields next door was full and seemed busy. Last week, it was just a long easy run and I don't remember feeling tired at all. This week I felt fatigued several times. Part of that may have been due to the big Mexican meal I had the night before. The other part was probably due to my faster pace. I experimented with nutrition during my run. I'm not sure it made a difference, but the raspberry flavored Cliffs Shot Blocks are delicious and provided a nice distraction from the fatigue. They're also similar in consistency to gummy bears. That made me smile.
Overall it was a good run. I enjoyed being out and just running.
Today's stats: I did 7.24 miles in 01:11:56 for an average pace of 9:56. Not too shabby. I may just do that half-marathon in October after all.
Next up: A theoretical swim tomorrow morning and my tempo run Tuesday. Today is my day off!
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