I unintentionally ended up taking a few days off. The last time I ran before Sunday 8/21 was Tuesday 8/16. Wednesday was a scheduled day off. I had a 7 AM meeting Thursday. I couldn't motivate myself to run Friday. L was scheduled to run Saturday and we had a whole day of other stuff planned after she completed her run. Sunday came and it was time to run. After multiple days off I always dread running. I'm not sure why. I'm going to try to alleviate that by becoming an every day runner. On days that I previously took off of running, I'm going to get up a few minutes before L gets up and get in a quick mile just to keep myself moving and motivated. On days that I have early meetings, I'm going to set my alarm 15 minutes earlier than usual so I have time for a quick mile. I feel better on days that I run. Add that on top of this new plan not giving me the chance to get lazy and I think it's going to work well.
Sunday I headed out into the humidity (close to 90%) for an undetermined number of miles. I hoped to do somewhere between 7 and 10. After taking care of all my pre run stuff I headed out the door all strapped into my much needed hydration pack. The temperature started out pretty nice, but the humidity was horrible. I was determined to keep my pace up a little with a goal of keeping it faster than 10:00/mile. The first 4 miles were right on the money, averaging 9:50/mile. My energy waned after mile 4, though. The first half of mile 5 was up a pretty good incline and by the time I made it to the top I was a little wiped. The second half was very flat and I spent that time recovering from the climb. Near the beginning of mile 6 I started a fairly long downhill stretch and was able to let gravity do some of the work. From there I had decided to keep the run closer to 7 than 10 miles. I had some IT band pain that required me to walk for a couple minutes. I also had some toe cramping at the same time. I don't know what that was all about but I was able to walk it off and picked up the pace again for the remaining mile and a half or so back home. Mile 7 was my slowest mile at 10:37 due to the short walk break. Once I reached the final turn to home I gave it all I had left and pushed out the final .69 mile at a 9:02/mile pace. Kinda slow, but considering I had already pushed out 7 miles it felt pretty darn fast to me. Long runs aren't really supposed to be about speed anyway, but I can't help pushing myself to finish strong. I figure it will pay off come race time.
Today was my first morning of becoming an everyday runner. I got up and did a quick 1.25 mile out and back run. I didn't really push my pace too hard and managed an 8:14/mile pace. It felt good to get my day started with a little exercise. I'm looking forward to the new routine. I think it will help me stay motivated.
The stats: I did 7.69 miles Sunday in 1:16:48 for an average pace of 09:59. I just manage to squeeze in under the 10:00/mile mark. I did 1.25 this morning in 10:17 for an average pace of 8:14/mile.
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