FIRST LONG RUN BACK

I might have imagined this while running through that tree with the really bright leaves. If you recognize this, you are a nerd.

Yesterday I did my first long run since September 26th, before the Portland Marathon. I wasn't too worried about the distance, it was only ten miles, and my marathon shape won't fade that quickly. I am a little concerned about whether or not my body is actually recovered from my two marathon experiment though. The first few runs back have been a little more challenging than I would like. However, they are my first cardio in two weeks and have been pretty hilly runs, so maybe that is to blame.

Anyways, yesterday's run went pretty well. I met with Matt, Katie, and Valerie and we ran ten miles from Matt's house. It was really uneventful. The fall colors are out in full force right now and some parts of the run were really pretty. There was this one tree that was dropping nothing but bright red leaves and that was really cool. I also saw the biggest mushroom ever off the path a few feet. I'm surprised a kid hasn't gone over there and gave it a swift kick. Anyways, the weather was perfect, low 50s and dry for the most part.

My legs started to complain a little bit at about mile eight. Nothing too bad though, I could have easily ran farther if I had to. Our overall pace was 9:30/mile, which was perfect and not bad for a route that had lots of rolling hills. I wish I could say the pace felt easy, but it felt harder than it should have. When we first started we were going about 10:00/mile and I thought I was going to die. By the end of the first mile though I had adjusted. I'm going to have to make a conscious effort to do speed work here shortly... if all I run is 9:00/mile+ then it's going to feel hard.