Run Report

We have managed to reclaim our spot on our training schedule - yesterday was an 8 mile slow run. I have never run 8 miles before. W has never run 8 before. Cosmo has never run 8 before. It was virgin territory for us.

It was slow...........sloooooooooooooooooow. Program called for 12:58 miles. Only way we would hit that was with walking breaks. We didn't take any walking breaks. We averaged 12:18 miles. Breakdown looks like this:

Mile 1 - legs crikey and creaky. Momo thrilled to be out. We go out very slow (especially for us since we pace horribly and tend to jack rabbit our first miles) with lots of crosswalk and traffic stopping, 11:45

Mile 2 - feeling good, beautiful cold day with a wonderful blue sky and sunshine. 12:07 with a poop break, for Momo, not for us! He gets even happier afterwards. LOL

Mile 3 - crusing right along, lots of chatting. We figure if we talk, it keeps our pace down. 12:05

Mile 4 - halfway, still feeling decent, but starting to feel a little tired. Feel a little awkward, running so slow but we keep at it. 12:31

Mile 5 - I tell myself and W that we only have a 5k to do now - piece of cake, right? We can run 3.1 in our sleep. Cosmo drops back from being in front of us to running between us. 12:10

Mile 6 - I am tired. I start the bad thoughts....the "if I feel like this now, how do I think I can run more than twice this distance?" stuff. I tell W I am struggling. She gives a little pep talk - we are so close, if we stopped or walked now we would be upset later.....etc. I try to go to my 'happy place' and trudge on. 12:14

Mile 7 - No memory. I must have blacked out from sheer agony. LOL Seriously, this part of the run went through one of my least favorite sections of our course. It is also by the lake so we ran into a stiff wind for almost the whole mile. Brutal. I was warm but my face was freezing. Cosmo drops behind us for most of this mile - I think to use us as a wind break. 12:45.

Mile 8 - It's a death march. Cosmo is hanging in there (our pace is practically a walk for him) but he is still back behind us. I don't know if he is tired or just bored. At this point, I start checking Garmin obsessively, thinking that staring at the watch will make the distance numbers change quicker. Finally at 7.75, I stop and tell W we just need to listen for the 8 mile beeper. She says she is feeling it in her back, shoulders and neck. I feel tired and my legs are tired but otherwise (thanks to my core conditioning class devotion) I feel strong. In that past, that has not been the case - I usually ended my runs bent over like a 90 yr. woman. 12:45

8 miles - 1:38:32

Came home, showered - long and hot. Gave Cosmo his well-earned biscuit and turkey neck and then he settled down to sleep his well-earned, well deserved nap. I headed out to the Y and spent the next 5 hours in a cpr training. Hamstrings are a little achy but otherwise, just some tired but feeling good legs. Getting this run done was a huge mental addition in the plus column for us.