The 7 miler

Today was slated to be my long run. I was planning on doing at least 6 today since my longer runs lately have been on the shorter end. I got up with the idea that maybe, just maybe, I wanted to try 7.

I set out on a gravel road heading out of town and then connected up to a state trail. Its an old rail line, so its fairly leval with minimal elevation.

The first 3 miles were tough. It just felt long and drug out and I started rethinking the plan. I kept telling myself that I just need to get to 2.5 miles(I was doing a turn around and doubling back). I just keep plugging away.

I set a pacing goal of 12-13 minute miles. It was harder than I thought to keep my pace slow enough to do that long of a run. There were points that I allowed myself to go faster for a short while at least.

At about 3.1 miles, I start thinking about how far out I am and the fact that I didnt bring a cell phone. I started wondering bout the brilliance of this plan. I hit 3.25 and I found my stride for awhile! At 3.5 miles run, I turned around on the trail and started running back.

This is the point where I really regretted forgetting my sunglasses as I was facing directly into the sun. Thankfully the trail was wooded and had various shade patches along the way. It was about 66 degrees out with a nice breeze.

My insides of my legs hurt for the first 3 miles, than at mile 4 my quads took up the mantra. The weird thing was the inside of my legs felt fine then.

I didnt hit the wall til mile 5. Then it was tough, I still had two miles to go and I was in direct sunlight. I had come off the trail section back unto the gravel road. Just keep running, just keep running was my mantra for awhile. The songs changed on my playlist and uplifted my mood a bit. I found a bit more of my stride at mile 6. It just might have been the fact that it was a downhill moment though.

For the last mile, I allowed myself to go as fast or as slow as I wanted. I ran sub 12 for the first half mile, then slowed to sub 13 for awhile and finished by sprinting sub 10. I ended up with overall average pace of 11:57.

This was my longest run yet for distance and time both. It took me 1 hour and 23 minutes and 41 seconds!!!

I will definitely take the next two days off as rest days as Ive run 13.9 miles this week total. And if I included last Saturday as well, it would be 18.6 in the last 7 days. I suspect its time for a rest!

Weight check later today. Im not sure what to expect. Part of me wonders since I had really really low calorie days(1200-1400) last week and had a big loss, if this week will be a gain. I kept my calorie intakes to a reasonale leval this week, but they just werent as low as last weeks. I also ran 3 days this week as well. Time will tell!

Stay tuned folks...

Mrs. F