The weather was great for a run this morning -- above 40, little wind, no rain. The downside: Sunrise today wasn't until 7:15. I don't own any reflective clothing. I'd meant to buy some, but then I've had so few outdoor runs, especially during the week, that I haven't needed it. So I decided to leave the dog at home (easy enough, because she stayed in bed with my sick daughter) and forgo the headphones.
One other advantage of an outdoor run, aside from the obvious, is that there's no driving time involved. Those minutes can be devoted to running. So I decided to flip my "kinda long" and interval days, and went for some distance this morning. As you know, I'm also hoping to get my mileage back up after two short weeks.
I started on my usual route, which gets me down by the waterfront in the second mile. The first mile was slowish -- in the 9:30s. That surprised me, because I thought I was running pretty well. Mile 2 was even worse -- the first 10:00 mile I can remember running in a long, long time. In fairness, I think I stopped for all four of these pictures during mile 2.
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| The Freedom Tower - 1 WTC |
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| Keyport waterfront over the harbor |
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| This Loyal Son lives right on the water. |
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| The Outerbridge Crossing |
Mile 3 was better -- a 9:11, much of it on the waterfront walkway. (For those of you who've been reading since the fall, no, it's still technically closed due to storm damage.) But my average pace was still in the 9:40s, and at this point in my training, that's just not getting it done.
Coincidentally, I decided to kick it into gear just as it was getting light out. And that's why this is a tale of two runs. There was a sluggish early run in the dark, and then a much higher-tempo run in the daylight.
Miles 4 and 5 were in the 8:30 range. 6 through 8 were an 8:00 average. The last 2 tenths I threw in, I must've slowed down a little bit - 8:20 pace. I looped the waterfront walkway and the big hill a second time to add some distance, then headed for home. The last mile was a zig-zag near my house. As I've said before, I often find it easier to tack on distance at the end, when I know I can cut it short at any time.
I was pushing my aeration, but my legs felt good, and I definitely could have kept going if I'd had more time. All in all, I covered 8.2 miles in 1:11:48 -- an 8:44 pace. I think it's safe to say that my race pace is squarely below 9:00/mile, at least for as long as a half-marathon and probably a few miles past that. Now the challenge is to be able to get to mile 20 at that pace, and see where the chips fall in the final 10K.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a drenching rainstorm, so that's a good day for intervals on the belt. Thursday is going to be cold, so back to PF again. Looking ahead, Saturday's weather looks pretty much optimal for a long. I'm not sure how long I should go, since I wasn't able to do my long this past weekend. I'm thinking of setting a goal of 20 miles, but simply pushing it as far as I can realistically go and calling it a workout.
One other thing I'd like to throw out for some advice: From time to time, I get a very acute pain on the outside edge of my left foot, about midway between toe and heel. Last night, it was really radiating, and it woke me up. Two ibuprofen took care of it, and it didn't bother me at all during my run. The odd thing is that it flared up after 48 hours of mainly being off my feet, and felt fine when my feet were slamming pavement. I know there's a ligament in that area; I'm wondering if that's it, and maybe I should look into taping it. Ultimately, if it doesn't impede my workouts and it doesn't get worse, I'm not going to worry about it. But I was wondering if anyone else has had that experience.
Total miles since starting the blog: 419.1
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