Today was my long run. I didn't go to crossfit yesterday. I was afraid since I'd done 8 miles on Monday and 4 on Thursday doing crossfit Wednesday and Friday would make my legs really tired. Turns out they were tired to begin with.
After my terrible run on Monday I've really been thinking about my training. I've been reading up on running and reading through my journal from when I was training last year. It really gave me some insight. One thing I needed to realize is that my long runs aren't for me to get my fastest time. They're for me to get my mileage in. My runs during the week are for speed. LR are for distance. My goal for my long runs is just to finish.
I also need to remember to keep my own pace. Not try to do too much or too fast. Slow and steady. It's worked so far; why change. So today when I was getting ready for my run and walking up to my starting point I thought about that. I'd worn the Garmin mostly for mileage purposes. I wanted to keep track of when I walked so I can log that later. I also wanted to make sure if I got off track or decided to change my route I still went 9 miles.
It was great to have the Garmin actually because it helped me keep my speed down. There were times I started feeling really slow so I'd speed up. Then I'd look down and see I was going 9:30 per mile and think "Can I keep this up?" I knew I couldn't so I'd slow down a little bit.
I also stashed something to drink in the middle of my route this time. Bryce told me he did it because he hates to carry water. I thought I'd give it a try and left a bottle of Powerade hidden at a church 5 miles into my route. It ended up being so wonderful! I left it there after drinking some. It was just too big to carry (I picked it up after). It was funny, about a mile after my drink I had to use the restroom. I'd drank a bunch of water before I started too so that probably didn't help. I looked around and saw that I was coming up on a house being built that had a port a potty in front. I hate those but have used them at races so figured I'd use it now. As much as I hated it I couldn't imagine running 3 more miles having to use the bathroom.
I finished my 9.09 miles in 1 hour 33 minutes. That's about 10:23 a mile. Other than my stop to drink and my stop for the bathroom I ran the whole thing. Up the hills and on the flat parts. All of it. I love that I can do that. And I felt great when I finished. I know not pushing myself was the best thing. I just kept my pace as comfortable as I could and it worked.
I love this route and may have to use it next week for my 10 miler. It has so much to look at when I'm running. I love it.
It has a canyon where deer stand on the side of the road and look at me as I run by. :-)
It has nice, new homes in pretty neighborhoods with yards I like to look at to get ideas for our yard.
It has beautiful fields and mountains and even a working dairy at one point.
And at the end I run by the Krishna Temple on the hill.
(I didn't take any of these photos by the way-I borrowed them from Google)
All in all it was a great run. I was happy with everything when I finished. I know next week could be totally different and I could end up hating that run but for now I'm happy with my running again. 3 more runs and then it's race day. I'm getting excited! I'm looking forward to that awesome feeling at the end. Where you know you did something amazing. Brenna says "One and done" but we'll see. There's something about finishing and that feeling...I love it. I'm not a fast runner, I'm not a great runner but I do it. I get it done. That's enough for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment