10.19.08

Long run today after a 7 hour drive home! Will update when I'm more settled in.

Well I went out to ball camp park about as soon as I could when I got home. I knew I would need a good 2 hours and I got there with just a little time to spare. The run started off really well. My legs felt great and after a few minutes in the park I headed on my middlebrook route. It was nice I went up the nice long hill making sure to take it pretty easy. I saw a little side route that goes down cedar bluff, so I took that. It was pretty good. It ends up eventually branching off into a hilly subdivision and by the time I was finished with my little excursion I added a good 20-30 minutes to my run. I was feeling really great at 1 hour. I did have to stop to use the bathroom though, and luckily there was a pilot right at the end of this loop so I stopped for a quick minute and got a sip of water too. I don't know if it was the short break or what, but after that the run seemed to be super easy.

I decided not to go back to the park. I was just going to go on ahead to walmart. So I did. I got out there still feeling pretty good and I took another tiny route past walmart up a pretty long hill. At this point I decided to turn back. I can't remember exactly what time I was at, but it had to be closing on 1.5 hours. So it was back up middlebrook. I started to feel the first signs of wear here as I knew there were two more pretty good sized hills left. I made it up the first one and realized I'd have only 20 minutes left when I got to the park. That's great, but also kind of bad because I hadn't refueled for but a sip of water. I think the cool air had a lot do with my fuel though because the sun was starting to set and it was definitely getting close to the upper 50's, especially with the wind.

So I made it halfway down middlebrook and still felt good, but my knees were starting to hurt. I just kept going and it really didn't take a lot of effort or will power to run. I was having a pretty good time actually and it really didn't feel like a "hard" run at all. So I made it up the last hill and as I coasted down I had 16 minutes left, with a few more minutes till I returned to the park. Once I got there it was 11 and by the time had my way back to the soccer fields at the back of the park I was pretty much done. The grass felt great back there. Next time I'll have to remember to schedule more time on the grass whether it be in the middle or at the end. The end is best because my knees were killing. I felt pretty good after this run. I could have went farther, but it just wasn't necessary. I'm not sure how much I actually got out of this run endurance wise, but physcially I think my legs (knees?) definitely learned a lesson or two.

So it was a great long run. 17 miles according to my time. I added an extra mile due to the race last week. I can really tell a difference though. I think that race almost improved my performance better than a long run? It is probably just from the extra rest I got from not running long and the little anaerobic boost from going fast added together. Soooo I'll be adding more miles in November and I'm looking forward to it. Long runs will be 19-20 or so. Then in December I'll have a 26 mile test and probably a recovery week after that just for good measure. I hope to be close to 80 miles per week soon. But I'm not too worried about the exact mileage, as long as it's increasing at levels I can handle I'll keep doing what I've been doing.

4:40pm. ball camp park-cedar-walmart. 65 degrees, got somewhat chilly.
2:18:08, bf 596