Today was long run day. As I mentioned yesterday, I'd done mostly cross training over the past week, and I was very interested in seeing how today's long run would pan out. Well, I have to say, it was probably the best long run I've had throughout my 8 weeks of half-marathon training. And while it wouldn't take much to beat out the crap-fest of long runs I've suffered through to date, today was really just perfect--or almost perfect anyway. The weather was gorgeous, I only got run over by an obnoxious teen on a bike once, and I felt pretty strong for most of the run. Now, you may be wondering what limits this run to being "almost perfect." Well . . . sadly, I did not run the full 8 miles. Around the 7-mile mark, I REALLY started to drag. Like many of my other runs lately, I just got to a point where I felt like I was exerting an absurd amount of effort, but the result was me crawling along at a snail's pace, hardly able to continue moving. I made it another quarter of a mile before deciding it best to walk the remaining distance. I was just having to work WAY too hard to justify continuing . . . and figured as such, my body was probably trying to tell me it was done with running for the day. Still, I feel really good about the run, and I'm thinking that another week of sleep and cross training are in order.
A million thanks (or foot rubs, maybe--what good are multiple "thanks"?) to Wilson, who ran with me despite the fact that I insisted on running "slower than slow" . . . Ha, my Garmin died the second I turned it on (oops, maybe charging it occasionally would help), so I unintentionally ran "watchless." (Emilie, I think running gods totally agreed with you on that no watch thing). According to Wilson's watch, we ran right around a 10:00/mile pace (which is actually faster than I thought--it felt like we were crawling).
Oh, and a quick shoutout to the Mister Softee man . . . what would I do without you? If it weren't so creepy, I'd promise a million foot rubs to you too--but how about I just buy a million slushes/soft-serve cones from you instead? That will benefit us both ;)
Sunday, May 4, 2008
The Long Run is Back . . . Kinda
Posted by Irish Cream at 8:21 PM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Regardless of not doing the 8, it sounds like you had a pretty good run. And the take it easy/week full of cross training did not hurt you too much. My buddy, Coach Kip, told me that you can pretty much get away with not doing a lot of running during the week (assuming you are doing cross training) as long as you get your long run in every week. Worked for you!
Hey there! I found you on meg's blog and thought I'd comment. Sometimes we have those days.....8 miles turns to 7 but the reality is that you got out there and did it. And sometimes we push through, sometimes not. It's all good.
How cool that you ran the LA marathon. I lived in LA for four years and never got around to doing that. Now I live in Budapest and it's the furthest thing from my mind -- the LA marathon. But I am going to try the 1/2 in Budapest this Fall and I'm training for a sprint tri....Well, much luck to you as you continue training! Jen
I'm glad you got out there and had a good run and listened to your body! I find it hilarious that the running gods and I were in sync for once, since I felt like we've been fighting for the past month or so. I'm so relieved to know that's over!!
Keep up the good work :)
Good job, Irish. I think you're back on track now. Here's to a great week of cross-training and even better weekend long run.
Oh yeah, I dig Mister Softee too. Not really because I'm a customer, but because his sounds usually translate to warm weather!
Post a Comment