My timing couldn't be much better for this morning's run. It was just an easy 6 miler. I went out on the Nor-Bath Trail. I thought about doing a run farther away, but I just didn't have the energy to drive anywhere. I didn't get much sleep over the last couple nights. I slept in today.
I started off at 11:30 in the morning. It wasn't supposed to begin storming until 12:15, so I figured I could just about get this run in before that. As I was at my car and ready to run, it began to drizzle. So much for running with no rain.
I was parked at Bicentennial Park and decided to try running away from the rain, towards the east, first. I knew that I could get in a total of three miles within the loop without crossing a road. I figured that I would have to cross a road at some point though.
My legs felt surprisingly great yesterday. I thought the 18 miler on Saturday would beat them up more. Today, they weren't as strong. They didn't feel bad, but there was quite a bit of soreness, even just walking around.
The first few steps were very awful, as usual. I've been wearing my new shoes a bit too much since I got them last week. I don't want to wear them out too quickly. I opted for my minimal shoes today. That made the run tough on my quads. I could feel the impacts much more than with my new shoes.
I was hoping to go out to Airport Road and turn around. I thought it would be 1.5 miles until that point. It was only 1.25 miles at that point. I decided to go across Airport Road. Thankfully, that was easy. That isn't always the case.
I could've turned around at 1.5 miles, but I just figured that if I got to mile 2, I'd only have 2 miles to run in the other direction. After a slow first mile over 9 minutes, things picked up into my normal pace.
I wasn't quite at 2 miles at Jacksonville Road, so I decided to cross that road too. After that, the path is close to the end. I passed a couple on this section. One of them was walking and the woman was running slowly behind him. I planned to turn around at 2.25 miles. I wasn't paying attention though and didn't look at my watch until after that. I just kept going until mile 2.33. That was nearly the end of the path anyway. I turned around and continued back the other way.
The rain was starting to come down a bit heavier at this point. It began messing with my watch. I was stuck in satellite mode. Finally, I got everything back to normal and locked the bezel.
I made it through the rest of the road crossings. I continued to go fairly easy. The rain slowed again. I was feeling a bit humid and it wasn't all that cold out, so I took my shirt off. What a difference in temperatures between today and Saturday. Then, it was around 32 degrees. Now, I was running with it in the mid 60s.
I hit mile 4 and kept on cruising along. I didn't feel bad, but I certainly wasn't strong either. Finally, I got back to where I started. That was at mile 4.65. I didn't think I was going too hard, but the pace for this mile was certainly brisk. It was down to 8:02.
I was at mile 5.25 when I got to the first road crossing in the other direction. That wasn't quite far enough to turn around and make it back. I decided to cross the road and go just a little farther until mile 5.40.
I felt good and cruised on home. In the final .4 miles or so, I picked the pace up. It wasn't hard, but faster than I had been going. It was kind of like the pace that Flo pulled me along with during the beginning of Saturday's long run.
I finished up a little before I started. My last mile was 7:43. I was kind of surprised at how sore I felt. I didn't run too hard. My knee caps were a little sore and my IT band had given me a couple issues throughout the run.
As I was walking at the end, I saw the couple again. They were now running together. I hope they weren't running that entire time, because that was awfully slow. I would've been almost 1.5 miles ahead of them. I wasn't exactly moving that fast myself.
It rained quite a bit this afternoon, so I timed things perfectly. I would've ran in the rain if needed, but it is nicer to miss a storm. It is actually pouring pretty good now. That wouldn't have been much fun.
It was good to get this run done. I'm now working on the easy portion of this half marathon training. I'm a definitely going to continue to back down. Tomorrow or Wednesday, I will try some hill repeats. Not too many, but enough to get a decent workout and some mileage. I'll be at cross country meets both days, so I have to be cautious. That will require a lot of running around too.
6 miles - 50:04 (8:21)
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