Long Run

Today, I ran the longest I've run since the half marathon in January!  I ran 8 miles!  I kept all but one mile under 10 minutes!  I'm not sure what happened on my 2nd mile but I just got that heavy legs, hard to move feeling for a while.  I didn't even have any hills in that mile.  I'm so glad that it passed.  Last Saturday I started out to do this route but it didn't happen.  I had a disaster of a run.  My body protested big time.  The weather was even great - 50 degrees.  I ended up at only 4.6 miles.
I was hoping for a bit warmer temperature today but it wasn't going to warm up until afternoon. It was around 35 when I started.  I'm so tired of cold weather.  It was sunny which is always nice. 

8 miles, 9:47/mile avg pace

I ran 8 miles in 1:18:45 for a 9:47 average pace.  My second mile was 10:22, my sixth mile was the fastest at 9:19; there was a lot of downhill in that mile! All of the other miles were between 9:43 and 9:50.  The last mile got tough but I still kept it at 9:45! That's so much better than what I've been running! 
During my run, I thought a lot about training for Chicago.  We are planning on training for a 4:30 marathon which is a 10:17 pace.  I ran this 8 miles at a 9:47 average pace which is faster than our marathon pace will be.  Most plans call for long runs to be run at least a minute per mile slower than marathon pace; that's 11:17 minute miles!  A couple of months ago I would have welcomed that pace, in fact, I was running that pace after a few miles!  Now it just seems so slow.  It's been three years since I've run a marathon but I do still remember how tough those really long runs are.  I'm excited but yet dreading it! 
I want it to warm up already!

Runner Nerd
longing for summer