Saturday morning I met a friend for my long run. We had talked about running 6-7 miles on the local highway between us. I'd ran on the highway before (alone) and wasn't a huge fan but mostly because I didn't like the big burly truck guys that honked and hollared (E. TN talk for yelled) at me as they drove by. But I was looking forward to running with my buddy.
I try really hard on Friday's, when I know I will be running long the next day, to watch what I eat so that I don't feel the effects of it on my run. I think I did well with that. I also try to get in bed and sleep long enough so that I am up and ready to go rather than dragging and dreading the run. I went to bed at a decent hour but probably could have gone earlier.
I woke up, dressed and munched on a handful of Frosted Mini Wheats before heading out the door. We were meeting at a store just a minute or two from my house. I think it helps mentally meeting closer to run rather than driving 30-40 minutes to a destination. Maybe that's just me though.
The weather was great Saturday morning. It was humid but not like it has been. We started at 7:30 and it was actually a bit cool. Perfect running weather even though in minutes I was drenched with sweat. We decided to go out 3 miles and make it a 6 miler.
I didn't really notice our pace when we started but when I looked down as we approached the one mile mark and saw that my Garmin had us at under 10 minutes for the first mile I was pretty excited. At that point I decided to take a quick walk break because I was afraid if I kept trying to plug along at the faster pace for a long run I would be spent well before the 3 mile turn around. So, we walked a minute and started back up.
Mile 2 came and we were under 10 mins for that mile too! I was excited. Under a 10 minute mile WITH a walk break!?!? That never happens to me. We pushed right along to 3 miles which we hit in under 30 minutes. I only wish I could run this pace in a race I told my friend. She kept encouraging me and pushing me the entire run. I did stop at just beyond 3 miles at the top of a hill to totally catch my breath (I even paused Mr. G) before we headed back down the hill for the remaining 3 miles.
The next couple of miles were slower but we were still averaging just below a 10 minute per mile pace. Most of my long runs have been right at 11 min/mile pace and that IS with walk breaks, too. As we approached the end of our run, coming up on 6 miles I really gave it all I had to climb the tiny hill there at the finish. I wanted badly to be under an hour for our 6 miles but even just seeing 1:00:00 on my Garmin for that 6 miler made me happy.
Just a couple of weeks before hubby and I ran a 10k and finished it in 1:10:00. Just 10 mins longer for only .20 miles. Clearly I had some speed in me on Saturday's run. I came home after my run and told hubby it was perfect...the weather was perfect, my body felt great, I didn't have to battle with my mind to get finished. I just ran and it was SUPER.
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