God Showed Me

Well, it didn't take long for God to show me that I APPRECIATE the wind. When I started at 11:30, the temperature was a nice 58 degrees; when I finished about an hour and 45 minutes later, it was an amazing 64 degrees. I almost wore pants with a short sleeve shirt, but opted for shorts and a long sleeve T-shirt. Thankfully, I carried along a short sleeve shirt. I drove to the Salem United Methodist Church to run. When I got out of my truck, I changed into the short sleeve shirt. I wasn't far into the run when the sweat began. The breeze was a little too strong at times, but I welcomed it. After all, it was only hurting my aerodynamics :).

After my horrible last run in which my pace was 10:02 for a 4 mile run, today's 11 miler felt good. I was still at a 9:00 (1:20:57) pace after 9 miles! However, it was gone in a flash - LOL. My slowest mile (not Mile 3) to that point was Mile 9. I struggled to keep the pace under 9:00 during that mile. The only thing I had eaten all day was some Starburst Gummies on my drive to the church - I guess that was breakfast. Now, it was going on 1:00 - way past my lunch time, too. I had ran into "the wall" at about 7.5 miles. The times until then:

1. 8:44
2. 9:06
3. 9:03
4. 8:41
5. 8:38
6. 8:52
7. 8:59

My total time was about a minute faster than what I needed for a 9:00 pace, which means I could run the last 4 miles in about 9:15 and finish with my goal pace. Mile 8 was close - 9:21. I tried to push Mile 9, but just couldn't do it - 9:35. I then gave up. I was barely moving at times for the last 2 miles - Mile 10 was 10:11 and Mile 11 was 10:14. Even though I failed at my goal pace, which didn't come about until about halfway through the run, because after the other day's 4 mile disaster I was originally hoping for under 10:00, I was proud of my time. And I believe the great weather played a major role in my time. My total time was 1:41:22 for a pace of 9:13. My heart rates: 174 avg, 187 max, 58 rest, recovery from 185 to 137.