Long Run on the Trail

Saturday morning Casey and I did our first official long run for the half marathon training. We met at the trail and did the out 1.5 mi and back, water break, and out the other way 1.5 mi and back to get to 6 miles. 

It was an absolutely gorgeous morning with no humidity. Nice change (though I suppose it didn't last long, looking at this week's forecast). For the first 3 miles, I felt great. The last 3 were more difficult. I became tired. My body felt pretty slumped. While we managed to maintain the 10:00 mile pace, it got hard for me. I was pretty frustrated with this. That pace for 6 miles on the flat bike trail, on a pleasantly cool and dry day should have been cake. I should have been able to talk easily and bounce along, just doing the 6 because that was what is on the schedule. It wasn't the case for me. However, Casey did awesome, and I'm very glad for that! (You're rocking it already! And thanks for pulling me along those 6 miles!)

By the time I got home, I was 100% disappointed in my slowness. I'm slow and I hate it, but this run also left me feeling weak. So, solution for the crappy running and feeling of loss of strength: back to spinning/biking I go. It was something Casey and I talked about during the run briefly, and now that I've thought about it more, it really makes sense and is important. Earlier in the year, I had been biking a lot more and was reaping the benefits of the added physical benefits on my runs. 

So enough dwelling on that. If I get all of my work done for LC tonight and don't find myself having to get up at the butt-crack of dawn to work, I'll instead get up at the butt-crack of dawn to go over to the community center, re-establish my membership, and take the damn early 5:50 - 6:50 a.m. spinning class. I am pretty motivated and know I'll love it...once I get there. It's been so many months! So I too will hopefully be spinning Mondays and Thursdays. Thursday the class at the community center is at 8:15 (woohoo!). Monday nights I can still plan to go on the shop ride or spin, whichever I feel like. This week there isn't one, so spinning it is. 

Other than this Saturday's run, I only ran Wednesday. It was a crummy week for schedules. And my hip. Which is fine now. Well, it still hurts, but I feel like it's back in "maintenance" pain :)  I've been doing a lot of stretching on the floor. Today's round of disc golf was probably a good thing for loosening up sore legs/joints. Walking is always good for that.