Brain running

For a change I used my brain (you may be skeptical here, but read on) for my long run, and the result was pretty good.

Last week I ran 14 miles, but went out too fast and faded badly at the end. I was gassed. This week, with an 18-miler on the schedule, I knew I needed to be smarter. It was a cool morning and perfect for any kind of run, but particularly a long one. I had a flat course laid out, which oftentimes means I start out too fast. This time, though, I opened with a 10:45 mile, and followed that up with 9:58 and 9:44, so my first three miles set me up very nicely for a well-paced 18.


Most of my miles were between 9:30 and 9:45, but I occasionally threw in a faster mile. I had two miles a few seconds over 9, and two others a few seconds under 9. I was beginning to tire toward the end, but my last two miles were still close to the overall average of 9:32 (9:40 and 9:30). I did 18.1 miles in 2:52:29.



When it was over I felt better physically after this run than I did after the shorter run last weekend, so that's a big plus. -- Rob