A test

Saturday was another real nice day for a run. I got out about 7:30, when it was still in the low 40s, so I had to wear gloves and a couple of layers on top. I went down to the levee, which, as it turned out, was open for about .8 of a mile. Better than nothing. I went out and back on that to start.
I had 12 miles on the schedule, but I decided if I was going to go 12, I might as well do a half marathon, and I might as well test myself a little bit doing it. I thought it would be nice to know at 6 weeks out just how I was doing.
I didn't treat it like a race, though. I still wanted to feel good at the end and I didn't want to go into a high-mileage week needing to recover more than usual. I started with a 9:53, then followed that up with a 9:22. I was being careful because I'd come out of my last run on Thursday with a little bit of a right calf muscle pull. It was slight, but enough to be a bit of a concern. It never bothered me, though, and after a couple of miles I just forgot about it.
Miles 3 and 4 were 9:05 and 9:06, and then all the rest of the splits were under 9:00, with a couple in the 8:36 range. I stopped briefly three times with the clock off to drink and refill my bottles.
The final tally was 13.1 miles in 1:57:28 for an 8:59 average. I think I could have shaved a couple of minutes off that if it had been a race at the end of a taper week.
30.5 miles for the week. -- Rob