My weekend was jam packed with things to do and none of them were running. In the interest of time, I opted for a ........road run. I know it's a nasty word but sometimes you do what you gotta do.
I would have much rather been sailing around the single track at Bradbury but I had an early morning window of only one and a half hours. I decided this would be a good time to speed up the pace a little and get as much out of the run as possible.
I was surprised how chilly it felt at the start but I actually warmed up fairly fast. I have an 8 mile loop from my house that I used for training back when I ran a lot of road races. It has a good mix of hills, one being almost a mile long.
Funny how things change, back when I trained on this loop I was running mostly 5ks and this was my long run loop. I would bring water, power gels and electrolytes. I would stretch before and after the run.
This day, I just hit the road and ran the loop, no prep or support items because I don't need them now that I run longer distances. A 6-8 mile run is just my normal training distance on any given day.
I was quite surprised to find myself enjoying this road run, of course being early morning, there was no traffic to worry about. I settled in nicely and because I didn't have to think about foot placement and such, my mind was able to wander and just relax.
The long hill that usually left me struggling at the half way mark was .......well just a hill ......I worked a little bit harder but settled in and just powered up it. It really felt quite easy and actually the whole run felt that way even though I was running a faster pace than trails.
I sped up the last half mile and pulled off a decent kick. In the end I accomplished a pretty good training run that would have been much to short if I drove somewhere and ran trails.
Next weekend will be totally different running the Mnt A 50K course. I am planning 2- 3 loops but who knows, maybe I will end up doing the whole thing.
8 miles (road)
1:08:43 (8:35 pace)
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2 comments:
Isn't it funny how our perception of what is a "long run" changes as our running changes? I remember going on "long runs" of 10 to 12 miles with a full fuel belt, etc. So funny!
As for road miles, sometimes it is good to change things up and be able to open up the stride on pavement. No need to feel badly about maximizing your time and hitting the road every once in a while :-)
Hope you have fun at Mt. A next weekend!
Ahh, good luck at the Mt. A! What a fun course!
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