Despite Eastern...

OK. So we all know how much I hate running on eastern. So I was not exactly ecstatic when for my 18 mile run this weekend 10 of those miles were on Eastern. Luckily, it was not very hot (since there is basically not a lot of shade). The next 8 miles of the run was around the Lunken Airport bike trail. I don’t know which one is worse!

Despite all of this, I was feeling pretty good when I woke up. I met up with my fellow Chicago group (there are about 5 of us in the group that are running Chicago and we are all around the same pace.) Saturday we were light, because of vacations…there were only 3 of us. Anyway, I felt like we were kind of taking it out a little fast. Especially since I REALLY have to get into a groove on Eastern since it is sooooooo BORING. I was a little worried.

Our first mile was 10:16. Our next was 10:11. This was not boding well because we all try to keep our splits between 10:30 and 11:00.
We got back on track with the next one, with a 10:23. I was starting to feel really great. Our first five we finished at 51:00.

After turning around at Montgomery Inn, I felt super powerful. Maybe it was the disgusting Gu that I gagged down.
I broke away from the group. I knew that I would probably poop out in the last few miles, but I wanted to test it. I figured, maybe I CAN run a 10-10:15 minute mile pace the whole time. No better time to test it in a long run. My splits were getting super fast (for me). 10:00. 9:50!!!

Then they started to drop back. I was back to my normal 10:22s and 10:39s. Even a 10:50.

BUT the slowest split I had was 12:00 (that was my 18th mile). So, I KNOW that I can’t really take all of my mileage at 10:00, because I would die at the end. But I do know that if I’m feeling good, its ok to do a few miles at sub 10:30. That made me feel pretty good about my training!