Another Run In the Books

Y'all are going to get sick of hearing this over the next few months, but I, once again, ran my furthest distance EVER!!!  Yes, that's right, I completed 17.74 miles on Saturday.

I wanted to get going early because we had a really full day, but the trail is not lighted at all so I had to start on the treadmill.  I did 7.2 miles before it was light enough to head outside to the trail.  It's a 2.1 mile loop, so I needed to do 5 loops to hit my scheduled mileage.  I stayed with my run intervals for the first two loops, but decided to walk most of the third and fourth.  At the end of the fourth, and with a daunting fifth loop and remaining 2.1 miles still ahead of me, my thighs were tight, the sun was up, and it was HOT.  I was seriously considering moving back inside and finishing out the miles on the treadmill.  But I didn't.

At that point I just wanted to be done and was looking for the fastest way to finish.  Not only did I stay on the trail, but I started doing intervals again!  Since my walking muscles were so tight, using different muscles by switching back to the run intervals definitely helped.  The best part was that since that trail is very hilly, I chose my running direction for the last loop so I could end with a long-ish downhill stretch.  So I finished strong, and ran it in, feeling tired, but great!

I headed inside for a quick ice & epsom salts bath, then spent a couple hours in compression recovery gear before heading out again.  After a long evening on my feet at a football game, my legs were feeling pretty sore so I decided to sleep in my compression tights and socks.  I woke up this morning a little stiff, but after walking around a bit I felt almost normal.  I kept my compression socks on most of the day to cut down on any residual swelling and I'm still feeling pretty darn good.  Love it.

Although the run was tough, it wasn't rough - which seems like a small differentiation, but makes a big difference mentally.  And, looking back at the stats, I can proudly say that I completed 17.7 miles yesterday in a shorter amount of time than I completed 16.8 miles three weeks ago.  Yay me!

I'm so pleased to have had a "good" run after the last month or so of not-so-good runs.  I hope all of y'all had just of good of a run/weekend as I did!

Saturday's Stats:

•  Treadmill
• 7.2 miles; 1:39:23; 13:48 min/mi avg. pace
• Trail
• 10.54 miles; 2:39:17; 15:07 min/mi avg. pace
• Time reflects two loops of walking, plus two fueling stops

Also - I hit 400 miles this weekend!  Wuhooo!!!