Wednesday, November 2, 2016

WWU - 8...er, 7.4 Miles!

We had 8 miles on tap for Saturday's long run.  It feels like I keep repeating myself when I say I haven't run this far since the Houston half marathon last January, but there you go.  I was a little apprehensive about this run, mostly because I would be running solo since Diane was out of town and Julia is doing different intervals than me.  But after a slightly-crazed email to my running guru, I settled down, decided once and for all what intervals to do, programmed them into my Garmin, and I was good to go.  In case there was any doubt, it's not easy being in my head.

Saturday morning came and naturally, the weather had turned back to dumb Texas weather, which meant it was in the low 60s with 100% humidity.  Not the beautiful weather from the previous week - it was so warm and I felt sluggish right away.  I started out running solo, but Cristy, who was in town over the weekend, decided to run my intervals since the longest run she's done in recent months was only 3 miles.  Great!  I had company, and it was really nice to catch up with her.  After the first mile or so, I fell into the groove of running, but my attitude was a little on the crummy side due to the weather.  I know, be mad at something you can't control, but darn it, I wanted my crisp cool fall weather back!!!  So around mile 4, I suggested to Cristy that we call it at mile 5, which was fine with her.

We ran, and got to the intersection where we needed to turn to finish at mile 5, but I think the combination of coming to that point on a slight downhill, plus being in a good conversation made us decide to run to the next spot and turn around.  Well, we got there and decided to run on to the next spot (side note:  do all runners have specific "hit this spot to get XX miles" committed to memory?).

We hit that spot and decided to run to the next intersection.  Now, I was thinking that we could just keep running and call someone to pick us up versus turning around - for whatever reason, running one direction appealed to me more than turning and retracing our steps at that point.  But Cristy said that if we turned left at that intersection, she could get us back to the Clubhouse by going in the back way, so we went for it...and that's how our 8 mile run that we shortened to a 5 mile run ended up being a 7.4 mile run.

In previous years, this unorthodox run would have been unacceptable for me - if I had 8 miles on my running schedule, then by golly, I was going to run 8 miles.  But I think after this summer, where for the first time I didn't force myself to start training early and suffer through long distance runs in the heat and humidity, I've become less rigid about running.  Don't get me wrong - I still run 2 - 3 times during the week as well as my longer run on Saturday - but I'm not as worried about how running less is going to affect my running in general.  I really just want to enjoy myself and make running work for me for long-term.

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After our run, we went to Blue Baker, where I ordered whatever looked good to me:
Bacon, half of a cinnamon twist, cranberry-walnut muffin, and coffee.

As usual, my stomach never feels like eating much after a longer run, so I ended up taking the muffin home for later.  But I did have some other treats - our baker surprised us with pumpkin chocolate chip cookies instead of our usual brownie ends:
These are our baker's favorite cookies - he's been telling about them for weeks, so it was pretty nice that he saved some out for us.  They were very good, but then, Blue Baker does all things pumpkin (bread, muffins) really well.

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This week, we're still mucking through warm, humid air, as well as fog - dense fog has been forming every morning for about the last 10 days or so, just to add insult to the non-autumnal feel.  But I'm running through it, holding out hope for another cool day...we're bound to get a second one someday, right?

15 comments:

  1. Ahh, that happens to me sometimes. And sometimes my planned runs are a little longer, like yesterday's 4 miler which turned into 4.5 because I made a wrong turn. Just run, right?

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    1. I've had those unplanned longer runs due to runner's brain kicking in and me forgetting the route, LOL. But whatever, it's all good.

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  2. I was smiling all the way through this post as I recognized myself in it. I have done many a run just the way you described. Sometimes you get through them and sometimes you don't. I'm so glad to see your general attitude about running and in it I see your "experienced" runner self showing through.

    I want that cranberry walnut muffin - YUM!

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    1. Thanks! Despite the change, I felt good about the run after we were done.

      The cranberry walnut muffins are amazing.

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  3. It is always great to have someone else to run with. I ran solo on Sunday and it was tough!!!

    And I found my NE Blue Baker equivalent which got me through it.

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  4. I'm afraid the Dumb Dixie weather affects my mood too! It must be nice to run with a friend. I don't get to do that very often...or never.

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    1. LOL on Dumb Dixie weather...sigh. It gets old, doesn't it?

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  5. I love your thoughts about keeping running working for you long-term.

    And, we have some good bakeries around here, but none of them comes close to BB's cinnamon twist!

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  6. I'm so over this weather. Trick or treating on Monday night didn't even feel right...it was almost hot! I'm so ready for cool, crisp days and nights!

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  7. Total victory in that long run! You listened to your body...you pushed yourself a bit further and you had a great run!!!!

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  8. I was thinking about you Saturday when my bestie who lives in TX was texting me about the horrible heat :( I love that your 5 turned back in to 7+! That's awesome. I cut my run that day too. Just didn't have it in me to suffer in that weather anymore!!! And I totally have those mileage points committed to memory :)

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  9. Not all outings are good outings. I loved how you kept getting to X and deciding to go a little further. And runners aren't the only ones who know where the miles markers are. LOL I have all kinds of routes mapped out in my head when I have a specific mileage or time I need/want to hit.

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  10. Dumb Texas weather...ain't that the truth. You're still going, which is what counts!

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  11. Great run Shelley!

    I don't know exactly where mile markers are but I always map my route before I go for a run to hit the miles I want to run. I do have that thing that I keep going till I hit for example 7.4, if it's on 7.38 I continue till I hit 7.4

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