Today was the first time in a really long time that I spent a Friday night in Toms River, and I was determined to use my time wisely, and do my first long run since April. I have been kind of listlessly jogging for the last 5 or 6 weeks, and I really want to get back into an actual training routine, and that means I have to bring back the long runs. I know this weekend is going to be difficult because I have a wedding all day tomorrow, and Sunday will probably be busy as well, so I wanted to give 10 miles a shot. My plan was to go slow and try to finish in about 90 minutes.
I started pretty slow, and ran the first mile in about 9:30. The 2nd mile was quite a bit faster, and I hit mile 2 in about 18 minutes. Pretty much right after that I ran past my old high school track coach who was on a walk, and I stopped to talk to him for about 5 minutes. I picked back up, and hit mile 3 in about 26:15, and was feeling pretty good. I was obviously picking up speed, but it feel pretty comfortable. I kept moving and never really had tough spot.
At about 7 miles I stopped for water for 2 or 3 minutes, and then tried to run steady to finish up. I was pretty tired towards the end, but finished in 85:18, which is 8:32 miles. It was a lot faster than I was expecting to go, but it felt pretty good. The last 8 were in about 67 minutes, which is 8:23s, and it didn’t feel like I was pressing all that much. I think it helped that it was an absolutely beautiful night, the temperature was perfect, and I was pretty determined to finally have a good run.
I will try to sneak runs in tomorrow and Sunday, but I am really glad I got a nice run in tonight. See ya later.
Blog Dog 