long run conquered!

This weekend M and I had an 8 mile run to conquer.  We were going to go Saturday morning, but Hurricane Irene was making conditions less than idea.  To be honest, we probably could have toughed it out - we live about 3 hours inland so it's not like it was dangerous.  But 90 minutes in the wind and rain didn't sound fun, so we postponed until today.  We decided to run on the American Tobacco Trail.

The first mile of this run was incredibly rough.  I don't know why, but we just couldn't get moving.  The ATT has mile markers ever 1/4 mile, which I can see being helpful.  But getting to the one mile mark and seeing my watch read 12:26 was discouraging.  I knew we were moving slowly, but, UGH.  This is a mostly shaded flat trail, what is our deal?  I think it took until about mile 3 to feel warmed up and ready to go.  Yikes.  But, I will say that once our legs were warmed up and we were 'in the zone' the miles went by nice and fast.  I even had the thought that I could probably go 9 or 10 if we needed to.  Alas, we stuck to the plan of running about 8.3 miles.

We finished our run in 92:32, for an average pace of 11:08.  Pretty good considering our slow start!  I don't have a Garmin so I can't do exact splits, but I do know that we ran the 2nd half WAY faster: at the half way point my watch said 48:55, which is an 11:48 pace, making the second around 43:47, a 10:31 pace.  Whoa.  Typing that out makes me feel pretty good about myself!  That's FAST!

After lots of stretching, I attempted a second ice bath.  This time I used all the ice in my freezer and a bag from the store.  It was definitely colder, but I'm still not sure it had it's full effect.  I feel like I need at least 20 lbs of ice or so.  I do think I got SOME benefit from it, but I'm definitely still sore a few hours later.  I almost got  talked into a spin class this evening, but I think I'll choose rest instead :-)

Dinner tonight is going to be one of the Betty Crocker recipes I love: Philly Cheese Steak Casserole!  I got bag of frozen onions and peppers to steam and mix into my servings so that I can let Scott enjoy his meal pepper free.  I'm pretty pumped for dinner, I'm ready for something hearty after a long run!