Long run
Last night we went to an 80s party. I went as half of Milli Vanilli, though not clear which half. the costume was actually kind of lame, but it still got some chuckles. The range of costumes was surprisingly good — lots of preppies, punks, mullet-wearers, Madonna wannabes, leg warmers, two Slashes, a Captain Steubing, a Larry Bird, John McEnroe, big hair, you name it. My friend Rich and I took our turn at Karaoke and sang "Ebony and Ivory" (I was the ebony part). Lots of foolishness.
And lots of Long Island Ice Teas, too. I don’t think I had had one in twenty years, and had forgotten how easily they go down. By the time I got home and crashed into bed the prospects for a vigorous early morning run were looking, well, not great.
But I got up anyway at 6 a.m., determined to go long. Stopped at the grocery store to get some PowerAde and a few chocolate flavored energy gels, drove over to the river, and headed out.
The plan was to start at the 13.5 mile mark on the bike trail, run a 1.5 mile warmup, and then start my run in earnest at the 15 mile mark, heading upriver at a moderate pace, turning around and speeding up coming back over the same distance.
The warmup of 1.5 miles was in 14:32 — 9:41 pace.
I decided to try to go 14 miles in the main set, going moderately for 7 miles up and faster 7 miles back. I was feeling pretty strong so I ran the 7 miles up faster than I expected — 57:25 (8:12 min/mile pace). I turned around at the 22 mile mark and started back faster. I started a bit too fast, but still managed to keep a brisk pace back for 7 miles — 54:56 (7:51 min/mile pace). Overall pace for 14 miles was 8:03 min/mile. Cooldown in 14:45. Total distance — 17 miles. Total time — 2:21:39 (8:20 min/mile pace).
This was the longest run I’ve had since my senior year of college (over 23 years ago!), and the second longest continuous run of my life. My legs are sore, but not nearly as sore as after my 16 mile run three weeks ago. I hope to try 19 miles within the next month. At this rate I definitely will be ready for the marathon in December.
Conditions for the run were about perfect (except for my slight hangover). Sunny, but temperature at the start at 6:55 was probably about 60 degrees, probably warming up by the end over two hours later at a bit over 70 degrees.
My plan is to run a 5K on Labor Day, and to run the 10 mile Buffalo Stampede the following weekend. I may try for a half marathon in October.
