Road Runner

I haven't run at lunch time in months. The weather has been horrible and I didn't really want to spend my afternoons in a heat-induced coma.

But yesterday I couldn't turn down the opportunity. The weather was fabulous, the sky was overcast, and since I won't be doing a long run this weekend, I thought it would be good to get in some extra mileage.

So I packed my gym bag and headed out with the guys for a lunch time run. Most of the group went 4 miles but I opted for 3. And those were 3 speedy miles, let me tell you. I thought I'd run slow since I'd just run a speedy 8.5 less than 24 hours before but apparently not.

Actually, one of the other reasons I wanted to run at lunch was because I feel like I've been slowing down lately. I remembered that when I was feeling fast in the spring it was because I was running with both the OPRC and my lunch time group. I know that running long distances uses different muscles than running short distances and that it's expected that you'll lose some speed when training for a marathon. I've tried to combat that by doing speedwork on a weekly basis but since I haven't run less than 4 miles since May (until yesterday!) I feel like I've forgotten how to run fast. I'm in awe that I managed to run 3.5 miles at an 8:12 pace at the end of May. Could I do that now? I honestly have no idea.

So I ran three miles and it felt good. And if the weather stays cooler and less humid I plan to be out there again.

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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 586 ft Location: -- Elev. Gain: +7 ft Date: 08/17/10 Up/Downhill: [+108/-101] Time: 12:19 PM Difficulty: 1.8 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 3.08 miles Time: 0:28:09 Speed: 6.6 mph Pace: 9' 08 /mi Calories: 375 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 54 -0' 14 6.7 +0.2 -10 ft 2 9' 29 +0' 21 6.3 -0.2 -3 ft 3 8' 50 -0' 18 6.8 +0.2 +16 ft end 9' 05 -0' 03 6.6 +0.0 +3 ft Versus average of 9' 08 min/mile

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