We picked a route that had some mystery road that we had never run before. It also included a lot of road that we knew pretty well. I always like road that I am familiar with and know what to expect. This route didn't seem to have many hills and change in elevation, although the hills were pretty rough.
Here's a picture of the route with the elevation:
With a week of "recovery," I wasn't sure what to expect. Kevin Neumann, from Ironman by Thirty, commented on a post last week. He wondered if today's run would be really good because this last week was really a recovery week. Well, Kevin...it was a pretty good run.
The first few miles were really sweet! I decided to just run according to how I felt. If that was faster than my goal, no problem. My goal for the run was to average 9:00 min/miles. Everything felt great, and the miles were ticking by. The new scenery was really sweet and kept my mind occupied. I decided to NOT run with an ipod again and suck it up. Today was much better than last long run where I had a difficult time fighting my mind to keep going. I didn't struggle much at all with the mind games. At mile 7, my overall average was looking good, but with 3 miles left, I was having a hard time keeping the average below 9:00 min/miles. That was my goal for the last 3 miles. At one point, I about peed my pants when a little black dog suddenly showed up and started running with me. It was actually nice company to finish the run with.
The final outcome of run was pretty awesome, if you ask me. I am pretty stocked about it. I ran 10 miles with an average of 8:34 min/mile! Today makes me feel pretty confident about doing the Holy Half in under 2 hours. Jenn did well too, although it was a harder day for her. She's pretty awesome to be cranking out the miles too.
5 comments:
Way to go! You are going to go sub 2 hours no sweat. I'm seeing 1:55 (or better) in your future.
It totally freaks me out when a dog runs with me. It is more the surprise of seeing him there than the fear of the dog.
That sounds great, Matt! When I passed you on Shawnee (looks like it was near the end of your trek), you were looking good and running strong. Way to go!
Sub 2 hours is going to be cake for you! Congrats on ANOTHER great run to you and Jenn!
GREAT JOB! Your times are dropping very fast lately, hopefully the swing continues for you :)
You will have a sub 2hr half no problem. With the race day adrenaline and other people to run off of, you got it in the bag :)
I found it funny that running stores sold dog spray... now I know why haha!
Thanks for stopping by my blog! Nice run. Listen to Kevin @ Ironman By Thirty. He is an INCREDIBLE runner.
Good luck this season with Steelhead. Shoot me any Q's you have regarding the HIM distance. Its a fun one!
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