16 miler on Monday

I wasn't able to run until 8:30, so I stayed on the treadmill (tonights going to another treadmill night - trying to get caught up at work means longer work hours). So last nights run ended well, but it took the legs some time to get going. The first 4 miles sucked. I set the treadmill at 6:58 and I didn't know how I was going to get through it. The legs were sluggish and I didn't have a good stride. After 4 miles, I stopped, took a GU and got running again (maybe a .10 of a mile rest). At this point I figured I would take that little break at each 4 mile increase, GU and then hit it hard again. My legs didn't feel "normal" until mile 9. At that point I finally felt good and things started to click. Miles 5 - 8 were at 6:53. Miles 9 - 12 were at 6:35 and miles 13 - 16 were at 6:28. I don't know how much of it was mental, but the legs felt better running faster than slower. The stride just felt comfortable.


Now the bad thing about running this late was I stayed up until 1:30am. Needless to say, tonights 10 mile run (at a 7:15 pace) will be interesting :)