Saturday, March 10, 2007

Two Problems = Great Run

This morning I tackled my longest run since last October during the Chicago marathon. I was pretty excited about getting out there. Usually, Sunday is my long run day but after taking one look at the morning weather (50 degrees and sunny) I decided today was the day.

The melting snow created some small pools causing some side to side dodging. Every now and then, a foot would get sucked into a mud pit and escape with a sucking sound. I probably should have splashed through the puddles instead. I came back covered in mud below the knee with my previously white socks a new shade of brown.

But it was a beautiful day....which leads me to my only two problems with this LR:

1) I wore too many layers. I was sweating like a madman. Probably had one too many shirts on. And the Adidas wind pants were questionable. I probably should have gone with shorts. Hard to break the winter habit though. I was dripping with sweat and mud and the layers felt like they were dragging me down by the end.

2) I went out too fast. Not on purpose; it was just such a great day. I had no idea how fast I was going and didn't bother to look at Garmin. The last 4 miles were a bit torturous as a result.

Ahhh, Spring has SPRUNG!! Has it not?

The numbers:

14.1 miles
1:47:31 time
7:37 per mile

My first several miles were all under 7:30...as was the 11th mile for some reason. I was pretty whipped by the end though. It wasn't a comforting thought to consider I have to average 7:30 per mile for 26.2 to BQ. Ugh. A ways to go.

Still, a great day. A great run. All hail King Spring!

2 comments:

Russ said...

thanks for the huzzahs on the pr...it's hard to call it a pr, when i used to be in the 16:30 range, but those days are long gone...i'll be happy to break 20 minutes in a couple years! saturday was definitely not conducive to nice easy runs it appears based on the sample size of two (you/i).

Mike said...

sounds like we had a similar experience on Sat.

'ceptin you were much faster