Stretching Out The Long Run

After taking a day off yesterday (I had birthday shopping to do, so it was for a good cause), I was ready to run this morning. We met down at RunTex, after I dropped a cooler at the 16 mile mark for the marathoners, and then carpooled up to Gateway shopping center for the start of our run. Amy and I planned to run 15 miles instead of the 20 planned for the fall marathoners, essentially duplicating our run of two weeks ago, and adding a run all the way to RunTex instead of stopping at Starbucks.

The weather was pretty nice for this time of year, and everyone was in good spirits as we got started. Gilbert cautioned us to take it easy early, and then to push the last couple of miles pretty hard, anywhere down to 10K pace if we could. So off we went. Amy and I immediately fell to the back of the pack, except for occasional runners who were making pitstops in the bushes. We were very close to the pack that had Richard and Kim in it early, but Alex, Patrick and Jan were all out of sight after 2 miles. It was pleasant running along in the dark, and we clicked off the first 4.5 miles before we knew it, arriving at Gilbert's Gatorade/Water stop and catching up to the aforementioned group there. After a GU and a cup or two of fluids, we were off.

Early splits: 9:17, 9:10, 9:18, 9:17, and .6 miles at 9:03 pace. Avg pace 9:14, after water stop time average was 9:33. A nice start.

During the second segment, we hooked up with Matt, a new guy to us, and ran with him until the UT campus. Again, nice running along the old Freescale course, along the railroad track road, through some neighborhoods, and on Shoal Creek Blvd., which is nice and wooded. Amy entertained me by relating a strange foreign film she had watched the night before. It was so strange that she had to get online and see if there were other folks who had some clue what it was supposed to mean. Funny. This was the same stretch of road where we were singing "Goldfinger" two weeks ago, so maybe it's something about that bit of asphalt? We rolled up on the second water/gatorade stop comfortably, moving along well. Another splash and go and a GU, and that was the last time we saw Richard and Kim's group. They left us in the dust from there, I guess.

Splits on Segment Two: 9:24, 9:28, 9:28, 9:13. Overall average pace 9:18, with water stops it slowed to 9:44/mile.

With Matt making us a trio, we navigated through the miles to 45th Street, across there to Duval, dodging the road construction, and then down Duval and into the UT campus. Matt eased back the pace there, since he had to go 20 miles today. Amy and I exited campus and reached Bernard's water/gatorade stop feeling good and strong. Time for the last push.

45th/Duval/UT Campus splits: 9:19, 9:18, 9:19, 9:12, and .4 miles at 8:20. Average for the day so far was 9:16/mile, with all water stops 9:38/mile.

Amy told me to go on ahead if I was feeling strong, so I pushed pretty hard up the hills there on San Jacinto just east of the Capitol, and turned down Congress for the last push. I worked really hard for the remainder of the run, pushing close to my max towards the end. I wasn't looking at the watch(es), but was just concentrating on running hard. It was a relief to cross the First Street bridge, go down the ramp, and double back to the water coolers at Auditorium Shores.

The last splits: 8:13, 7:17(!). I guess I really was running hard, huh? That dropped the overall pace for the day down to 9:05/mile, and with water stop time, the pace was still a strong 9:24/mile. A great day at the running office. Amy arrived shortly after I did, and we met up with Alex for our 8 x 100m strides after we caught our breath. Alex had run much faster than we did, but he was a good boy and "only" ran 15 miles, too.

The strides did their usual magic, and my legs felt better by the time we had finished them. We got our stretching gear and met over at Auditorium Shores to stretch on the grass there since it was such a nice morning. The marathoners were still coming in while we were stretching, so they did their own thing over at RunTex. The stretching was very helpful in working out some of the residual soreness from the morning's exertions. Alex offered to drive me up to my car, and we decided to do a cold soak at Deep Eddy this morning on the way. That cold spring water sure revives your legs after a long run! Fully refreshed from the brisk waters, we made our way up to Gateway one last time, and the running day was over.

Thumbs up all around, I'd say. Final tallies 15.1 miles at 9:05 pace (9:24 pace with water stops), and 15.6 miles including the strides. For the week, my mileage bumped up to 39 miles, and it looks like Freescale training officially kicks off next Saturday. Except for skipping the gym workout on Friday, I had perfect attendance for my exercise schedule. A good week.

Next week is somewhat laid back, with easy runs on all days except for a 6-8 x 800m workout on Wednesday. Should be a nice chance to bump up those recovery runs on Tuesday and Thursday a little more, since Monday is an easy 7 miles.

Churning through the old RunLog, I find that I'm 320 miles ahead of last year's to date total, a 50% increase. That's partly because I was injured and recovering during last summer, but it's still nice to see. From here on out, my mileage was pretty high last fall and winter, so I don't think I'll continue that sort of big increase, but I know I'll pass last year's totals by late October or early November. Fun with numbers.