Today’s Workout – Long Run plus Easy Miles

Total Mileage: 16.13 miles

Total Time: Approx. 2:35:00 (I split up the runs so hard to tell exactly)

Average Pace: Long run – 9:11 min/pace; Easy Miles – 10:44 min/pace

The story of any long really begins the night before.

We have a new tradition in our house to cook dinner at home on Friday nights instead of going out to eat.  This was actually put into place prior to me losing my job, but now it makes even more sense.

The whole reason we started this was to focus on making good meals to help sustain our long runs, which are usually on Saturday mornings.

Last night we kept it simple with whole wheat pasta and vodka sauce.

We also measure portion sizes, and we each had 1 serving size.

I told my husband we were super classy because we drank our Powerade Zero out of wine glasses.

After dinner there may have been a Menchie’s frozen yogurt run as well. 🙂

A couple hours before bed my husband asked if I would come and support him by giving him water and making sure he was OK during his 10 mile tempo run the next morning.  I was more than happy to help, but that meant I needed to rethink when I was going to get my long run in.

I had 13 miles on the schedule so I decided to get up around 7:00 and start my run and then I’d be ready by 9:15 or so to take Wes to start his.

I laid all my clothes out the night before to make sure I didn’t have much to think about when I got up to go run.

I started my long run off VERY slowly. I was and still am having some hip pain so I wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to act up on my like it did Friday. After about 2 miles I felt like it was going to be OK and picked up the past.

I finished the last 4 miles each under 9:00 minutes and was happy I was able to push through.

I finished and quickly went in to change and take Wes down to a local state park.

I followed Wes for the first 10 miles of his run to make sure he was ok (he has been having some knee pain) and then proceeded to go park and run another 3 mile cool down.

There was no point to these miles, and honestly at the time I ran them they were more just “extra miles” than a cool down. I ran very slow and averaged around a 10:44 pace between all 3 miles.

After I finished all the running I was going to do for the day I relaxed and thanked my legs for getting me through 16 miles by let them sunbathe for about half an hour while the hubby finished up the rest of his run.

I just finished showering and then we are off to have a low key night. Tomorrow is actually my husband’s birthday so I am letting him do whatever he wants. I feel a bit guilty that his birthday falls right after all this happened – but thankfully he is easy going when it comes to birthday’s.

Have a wonderful Saturday!

What are your Saturday plans?