22 Miler over the week

Getting back down to business of running long runs this past weekend, I headed out for a 22 miler on Saturday morning.

The first mile, my feet barely felt like they were touching the ground. This was going to be a good run, and I knew it. The next couple of miles, I just settled in to a comfortable pace. The mile long hill climb didn’t seem to faze my legs at all.

With the first loop complete, I headed out for the second loop. My legs didn’t feel quite as chipper. The bounce was there but not to the degree that it had been in the first mile.

At mile 15 miles, the pace was still much better than I expected. However, I was about to test myself with the mile long hill which was followed by a nasty set of step rolling hills. At this point, I had two options. I could settle for the running the last 7 miles easy and finishing up the today’s run feeling good about it. The other option was to open it up and do a fast finish over the last 7 miles. Normally, I would have settle for the former, but today, I felt like going for it.

Instead of feeling tired and sore each stride felt strong and directed. By the time that I reached the top of the mile long climb, I knew the rest of this run was going to go well.

I rolled the last few miles clicking off some nice 6:30s miles.

Looking back now this was one of my best long runs in several years. I hope this bodes for my upcoming races.

 

Sharing one thought at time,

The Cool Down Runner.