Sunday, August 8, 2010

Fast times at runner's high

Pre-workout fuel: Slice of whole-wheat toast with Amish cherry jam and half-cup Amaretto Cream roast coffee
Workout: Ran 7.21 miles in 1 hour, 4 minutes, 49 seconds; average pace, 8:59.

The pain in my right leg was nagging as I walked my two-block warm-up. It started somewhere around the knee and went up to mid-thigh. If it was going to feel like this for the entire run, I was going to be in trouble. T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Thankfully, though, once we got started, the pain dissipated.

Today's plan was 6 miles, with Mark and Denali joining me for the first 4 miles. I say it every day but from the moment we started, I knew we were going too quickly. I kept trying to rein in the pace, reminding myself that I wouldn't get to go inside and shower when we looped back to the house. And yet, for whatever reason, three of those first four miles were faster than a 9:0o pace. D'oh!

After I split with the boys, I did slow up a bit but "slow" once you've been running 8:50s ends up being 9:08s and 9:09s. I was fatigued from the pace but felt relatively good, and I opted to add in another mile. Reason 1: Six miles is going to be a weekday run this week - I can't have a long run be the same distance. Reason 2: I wanted to test how good I felt doing distance after last week's half to help me make a decision about Fort-4-Fitness.

And while no decision was made about that half, I'm happy to say that this is my fastest pace at this distance.

In other running-related rambles, you know you are a runner when you watch "Ice Road Truckers" and think about how your quads would feel making those Alaskan climbs. In the summer, of course.

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