Week 8: 14 Mile Run

Because this week's long run was considered "only" 14 miles, we spiced it up a bit with the challenge of running the middle 10 miles at a 7:30 pace! Before I give the splits, let me just say that it wasn't my idea or Amy's idea to do it this way. We would've been perfectly content with running a nice slow 14 mile run on the trail. It was Thon's idea to start at Stacy Pool and run the Dallas White Rock Simulator. Our first 2 miles towards the trail would be our warmup. As soon as we hit the 0 Mile Marker on the trail, we would begin working our way to a 7:30 pace, knowing that our lungs and our legs just don't like going from a 10min pace to a 7:30 pace immediately. We'd hold that for the next 10 miles and then cool down for 2 miles back to our cars and the refreshing waters of Stacy Pool.

The main thing I noticed about Friday's run was how sore my legs were from a week of pretty intense speed work on the bike and on the track. My hamstrings were tight, My IT Band was sore and my lower back felt weak. As we discussed, I truly have no one to blame but myself for these aches and pains as I have been horrible about stretching. There's just no excuse for not stretching after every workout and I was feeling it.
Even though I was sore at first, it's amazing how your body just sort of "settles in" and says, "OK...If this is how it's gonna be, then let's go."

Here are our splits every two miles (Sorry--it's how Thon keeps track)

1st 2+ Miles: 23:31

Miles 3 and 4: 16:15
Miles 5 and 6: 15:16
Miles 7 and 8: 15:06
Miles 9 and 10: 15:06
Miles 11 and 12: 15:06

Last 2+ Miles: 22:33


39:07 1st 5 miles (of pace portion)
37:43 2nd 5 miles (of pace portion)

So, while we weren't dead on, we were amazingly close and I received this email from the Thonster:

"The last article I read suggested that you should be 2 minutes over for
your pace run no matter how far it is and that almost all of it should
be in the first 4-6 miles. We were 1:50 over and most of it - 1:31 -
was in the first 4 miles. Nice."

I'll take it...Now, if only I would stretch these aching muscles a bit more!!