Pushing the Running Limits

I'll be honest, I am physically tired.  My legs feel heavy and I thought about going to the gym tonight to do a full body circuit workout, but I cannot do it tonight.  You see, I pushed myself running today and I ran the longest continuous run I have ever done.  Not only in distance, but in duration as well.

The last couple of runs I ran this week were at the gym on the treadmill due to the cold weather.  Normally I am only able to run at night during the week and I really do not feel like running at night in 35+ degree weather.  Plus I get to do my circuit training after my run.  Today however, I was able to run during the day and I made the decision to make this run a distance run, something I have not been able to do in a while. 

So I took off running and decided to take a different route than I normally do.  The route I took today allowed me to add more elevation to my run.  I expected to gain some distance today; I had set my goal at 5.5 miles, and if I pushed it, maybe even run my second 10K distance (6.2 miles).  Well, I pushed it alright.  I pushed it all the way to 7.68 miles in 1:25:32.  What surprised me was my pace.  Normally on my long distance runs I run about a 11:25 to 11:40 pace, but today I finished with an average pace of 11:08 minutes per mile. 

Here is the details of the run:

My longest run ever, both in distance and time.

Here are the splits for the run:

For some reason, I felt like I was getting faster with each mile.

After running this distance, and for this duration today, I really feel good about training for my first half marathon.  I still have as my goal for my first half marathon to be next September, running the Plano Balloon Festival's Half Marathon, but knowing that I can do this distance and duration now, I may move my first half marathon race up to June or July.  Stay tuned.

And the other best part of the day?  I dropped over 3 pounds today in my weight loss!

Thanks for reading.  Have a great rest of the day.