Saturday, August 7, 2010

Holy amazing run, Batman!

I was up at 4:45 this morning hoping to get my run in pretty early. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain with thunder and lightning, so I held off for a little while. At 5:30, it seemed to be clearing up, so I drove over to South Mountain. When I got there, it started coming down again. So, I waited about 10 minutes, but the rain just kept coming down harder and harder. I ended up deciding to head back in the direction of home since it wasn't raining there (at least it wasn't when I left. Well, it poured all the way back home. After about 20 minutes or so, it began clearing up again, so I mapped out a new route and headed out. The plan was to run the same 8 mile loop I did on Thursday, stop at home and change into my new/used Kinvaras (Thanks Ted!), and go out for another 5.

The first 8 felt really good. It started raining on me about mile 2, but it only lasted a couple miles. After a relatively slow first mile, I settled in to a comfortable pace for the rest of the run (except for mile 6 which was on a gravel trail where I had to stop like 5 times to dig out mud and rocks from my socks). Turns out that pace was BQ pace. Cool!

I got back home in just under an hour and changed my socks, shirt and shoes, and headed right back out for my final 5. I think I may have tied the shoes a little too snug, but other than that, they felt great. Maybe it was all the hype I've been reading about these shoes, but these last mile were really fast. Like 7 minute miles and below. Man, it felt great!

I got back home in time to enjoy some homemade chocolate chip/banana pancakes and fresh blueberries and strawberries.
Besides the new shoes, I had a few other "firsts" for this run. I just got a new Halo headband. Loved it. It's time to retire the old (really old) headband. :*( (see here for more on my relationship with this headband. In addition to my usual toast and banana, I had a green smoothie for breakfast and a spoonful of organic blackstrap molasses. Turns out molasses is super good for you. I'll be trying it out as an energy gel again. I really think both of these really helped on the run today.

Enough of my ramblings. Here are my splits:

Goal pace - 7:30
mile 1 - 7:58
mile 2 - 7:20
mile 3 - 7:23
mile 4 - 7:14
mile 5 - 7:17
mile 6 - 8:00 (mud, rocks)
mile 7 - 7:15
mile 8 - 7:12
Intermission ~ 7:00
mile 9 - 7:01
mile 10 - 7:02
mile 11 - 6:59
mile 12 - 6:48
mile 13 - 6:26
Total time - 1:33:51

2 comments:

Linda said...

Your morning started very similarly to mine. My alarm went off at 4:45 and it seemed to dark, rainy, and dangerous (from the lightning) so I went back to bed until 5:30. Then I drove to South Mountain. I decided to go ahead and run in the rain, and it did rain for a little while, but no more than half the way up, if that (I ran to the Dobson lookout). I couldn't believe how cool it was this morning! I was wishing I had parked further away for a longer run!

But, of course, my morning included a shorter, MUCH slower run than yours. :) Way to go! Maybe I should get some molasses...

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