25 (almost) big ones

I got to tag along with Sadie and her Team Rogue group on Saturday for my long run, so I guess I'm obligated to blog about it. :)

Since I've been so busy with work the last few months and my running group was focusing on track meets and other races, I decided I would just train by myself this summer. It's really been a nice change of pace. I run when I want to and take the day off when I feel like it. I spent the first part of the summer just running easy, but lately I've been adding hills when I can. That's pretty easy to do in our neighborhood. The worst part has been the heat because I run after work. I think at one point I had a string of 7 or 8 runs in a row above 100 degrees.

Long runs have been harder because I've worked a lot of Saturdays and it's hard to get out of bed early when you're not meeting up with anybody. I had managed to get in a 16 miler and a 19+ miler, but I knew I needed to get in a few runs above 20 miles in order to keep Portland from being painful. That's why I jumped at the chance to run with Rogue on Saturday when Sadie suggested it. It was their 2nd of 3 Soul Buster or Race Prep runs. (Basically, 20 miles with 1 "fast" mile and 9 miles of MGP, followed by 6 miles on the track progressing from MGP to 10k pace.) I figured that this run would give me a good idea of my fitness level, but I also figured with my lack of training (compared to their training), the 6 miles on the track was an injury waiting to happen. Instead I elected to just run another 3 miles on the trail when I got to the track.

So what happened? I had a good run. I don't know what my fast mile was because the auto-splits on my Garmin weren't in sync with the track, but I felt like I gave it a good effort. The first 5 miles of the MGP, I seemed to be staying right around 7:00-7:05, except for the mile I had to stop and ask Jon and Keith for directions. The 2nd section I picked it up a little and averaged about 6:55/mile. That was my first MGP work of the summer, so I was pleased to be able hold those paces for 9 miles.

After that we ran up Red Bud Trail and into Westlake for some hills and finished it off on Stratford. While everyone else broke off to the Austin High track, I finished off the 3 mile loop for a total of 23 miles. Garmin said I had a 7:47/mile average. I thought that sounded like a good days work.

It was starting to get hot when I got to the track to watch Sadie finish up her run. She must have been 3-4 laps in when I got there, so I had around 20 laps to relax and stretch and get re-hydrated before we would leave to go back to the car at Barton Springs. I watched her run for a couple miles and then all of a sudden she runs by and I hear her say "Do you have any energy left?" I knew what that meant. She wants me to run with her. I could have said "No, I'm tired" or pretended to not hear her, but all I could manage to say was "Maybe....Why?" as she ran past. I knew what I had to do so I cut across the field and met her on the other side of the track just to make sure she wanted me to run with her.

From there I ran another 7 laps of the track taking a few laps off to let Sadie run by herself. So my long run turned out to be 24 3/4 miles. That's the longest I've ever run at one time without being in a marathon. The crazy thing is that I'm not really that sore. I guess the extended break before I hit the track probably helped that.