Long run this morning. Stashed water bottles last night so I didn't have to wear the fuel belt. Carried Clif Shots and sour slices. Ate about 250 calories over 18 miles, which is a little bit more than I have been doing on my long runs, but I think it was beneficial. I never felt totally depleted and was able to hold pace all the way to the end. I planned on averaging 7:30 pace, but it just felt more natural and very comfortable to run 7:20s. Around mile 6 this master's Iron Man Triathlete guy creeped up on me and we started chatting and running together. I had to laugh because I think I have fallen victim to other competitive men for the last three long runs in a row now. They seem to want to run a half stride ahead of me and the pace keeps getting faster. Last week was the same scenario, this guy I was running with could NOT seem to run slower than 7:10 pace even though he didn't have any reason to run faster and I told him at least 5 times that I didn't need to be going that fast. Finally when he took a pee break, I spotted a porta-potty and ran off without telling him so we could "accidentally" get separated and I could run slower the last few miles. This morning seemed to be the same. The guy kept talking about his running accomplishments and kept running faster each mile...a half stride ahead of me of course. We ended up doing about 6 miles together between 6:30-7:10 pace...so that brought my overall average down quite a bit. Two weeks ago it was a different guy in the Runner's Edge group who seemed to want to see me suffer and threw in a 5 mile tempo at 6:30 pace. I think he just wanted to get me beyond conversational pace so I would shut up or something. Then afterwards he expressed that he was pretty impressed and a little threatened because he didn't want to be "chicked" by a mother of 3. Haha. Anyway, this morning after the masters guy was finished I still had 5 miles to go so I slowed back to a comfortable pace around 7:20s. Overall I felt GREAT and I am WAY excited to race a fast half-marathon next weekend. Total for today: 18 miles @ 7:07 average. |