Long Run

Saturday was my first "official" long run. (I figure that 6 miles is not really considered a long run). Luckily, it was with friends and that made the time just fly by and the pain seem non-existent. My goal on my long runs this season is going to be nice and easy...getting in the miles comfortably and building endurance, not speed. This is what the goal was supposed to be last marathon season, but I never listened to Coach Ramon when it came to that, and just ran all of my long runs at a medium to medium-fast clip. But everything I have read about marathon training plans is that your long run is NOT the time to do this...those are what your medium runs are for during the week. So that is one thing I am tweaking with my training (more on that in a later post).

I met Gina at the park for a slippery 2.5 miles (okay, Garmin says 2.56, but I swear it is really 2.7 miles...) around the full bridal path loop. There were times when it was so icy that I lost my footing. Luckily I never lost it enough to actually fall down.

Did I also mention that it was fah-reezing out? 11 degrees, but luckily not very windy. I was wearing tights underneath pants, a tank under a long sleeve tech shirt under my sugoi speedster under my jacket, a pair of glove/mittens, my fleece headband, and I had my hood pulled up (with ponytail sticking out of the ponytail port, of course). I told Gina that people were laughing at me on the way to the park. She pointed out that even the crazy guys you see on the coldest days running the loop in shorts were not out today. True. And what does the dry-cleaning lady know anyway?

The funniest thing that happened was when we were crossing the 102nd street traverse. I felt like something was down around my butt. Suddenly I also felt like my movement was impeded by what could only be my tights sliding down my legs. I cracked up and told Gina "My tights just fell down my –" as I was feeling in the back to pull them up. "Wait! It's my pants! My pants fell down!" And after that, it just kept happening.

We finished our loop and met Bill for the full 6-mile loop (he got a later start with training than I did, so I recommended that he NOT do our 8-9 mile run).

It was nice, and the three of us were all chatty the whole way, which made the time just fly. Plus, I love running with Gina because she keeps me on pace. AND we had matching green garmins that were happily chirping along the entire way. How cute.

Afterwards? I felt like I ran 6 miles, not 8.5 (or 8.7). NICE.