Went to the mall to run today. It was chilly, windy, but not awful. I wasn’t bundled to the hilt. As you can see…
The only things I added were my phone armband and a hat. And kudos to Columbia–that top is from their OmniHeat line and it did keep me comfortable while I was running. I wasn’t too cold or too hot. Mad props, yo, ‘cause I was a little worried.
So roomie and I head out. She’s got 4 on her schedule, says she’ll walk until I’m done. Cool. We CRUSH the first mile with a totally unintentional sub-10:00 pace (9:58). I’m always happy to see a 10:00 or less, but doing it in the first mile usually blows me out. Today it did not. I barely felt it. Maybe I was just numb from the wind, but while we did slow down for the next couple of miles (12:14 and 12:12), I still felt good and strong and didn’t need to walk at all. She is recovering from The Sickness still and needed to walk at one point so she waved me on and I sped up a little (as I do). The rest of the run was solid (11:18, 11:26, 11:34) and my average pace was 11:33, so I was happy. I’m always shooting for average pace between 11 and 11:30, so I’ll take being that close when my first mile was sub-10:00. Felt really, really good. Though admittedly, when I got home my knees said “WHAT?!” when they saw the stairs in from the basement. So…tomorrow will be a rest day and I will make sure I sleep properly tonight.
Back to four running days per week, even though two of them are only 2 mile days, and I have to psych myself up for those because for a distance freak like me 2 miles is not something I get excited about. But my long run next weekend–8 miles. CAN’T WAIT. Real distance! Finally! So pumped. 😀