A Training Milestone & Plan Updates

Saturday morning, I ran 10 miles.

This is the first time I've run double-digits since February 2017, and it's my first 10-miler of half marathon training.

On my training plan, I didn't schedule 10 miles until late January, but Saturday morning I just felt like today is the day. I had 7 miles on my schedule, but knowing that I will likely miss my next long run due to holiday plans, it seemed like this was a good time to take a risk and push myself.

I honestly wasn't sure how the run would go. So far I've gone up to 8 miles in training and felt fantastic the entire time. When I drove to the start of my run, I realized I really didn't want to run the route I had planned. I got back in the car and drove to a different spot, so I started the run about 20 minutes late, but the weather was perfect for a late start, so it was okay.

Mid-50s and cloudy! Perfection!

At mile 6.5 I began to eat a cherry lime Gu, and kind of ate it in nibbles until mile 8.5 or so. I never felt starving, but the Gu definitely helped keep my energy up for the end of the run.

Around mile 7 I started to feel bored and ready to be done - clearly I'm out of practice with running alone for long periods of time. At mile 8 I started in on the positive self-talk; I didn't want to take a walk break, but my hips and lungs were started to ache. I just kept repeating C'mon girl, you've got this in you. You're gonna run 10 miles! Nice and steady! It was like I was urging on a horse.

Except I didn't fall off at the end.

At mile 9, I knew no matter what I'd succeed. My brain kind of turned off and I just sailed through the last mile.

Anyway, at the end I was too tired and relieved to feel much excitement over the accomplishment, but after a shower and breakfast, the pride set in. How surreal and wonderful, to know I'm running long distances again! To know I did Saturday's run at a steady sub-10 pace and didn't take any walk breaks! To feel as strong as I do right now!

Mile 4 is an outlier because I was exploring a new area, so I think I slowed down a bit to keep my bearings, and then I texted Matt to let him know my ETA.

I feel lucky that we are finally getting an actual winter in Florida this year, because it's making training much easier.

This run also makes last week the highest mileage training week I've had so far, because I ran two 5-milers, too. Although I've planned for four runs a week, I've pretty much scrapped my Thursday runs, which has allowed my legs to recover better for my long runs on Saturdays. I've always run best when I stick to three weekly runs and add a fourth only when it will really benefit me.

With all the housework we've been doing lately (painting, culling, reorganizing) and school events, it makes sense to skip Thursdays most weeks. I'm adding a bit more mileage to the other two weekday runs, and that's been going well, too. I am trying to keep all my runs at a minimum of 5 miles as long as my legs recover nicely from my long runs.

So that's it for plan adjustments! So far, so good. We'll see how things go as we get into the new year. A1A is just about 8 weeks away!

ABK