Long run

In my head I had set a hard minimum of 2 hours - I ended up stopping at 1:53:41 (10.45 miles, avg pace 10:52, avg HR 151), but I'm still pretty happy with it. There were a few factors I hadn't really accounted for: for one thing, the natural turnaround on the canal path out-and-back from the hotel falls around 4.5 miles, so everything after 9 was me overshooting or trying to run around a few extra blocks or what have you. Also, I had finished my water by the 1:20 mark - I did see one fountain about 20 minutes after that, but by that point it hardly seemed worth stopping, I had the scent of home in my nose!

(It is also true that it is purely desire rather than accomplishment that would have had me running 16 miles this weekend - I'm not at all caught up with that schedule, I had one two-hour treadmill run about three weeks ago but other than that I haven't run for more than an hour, and certainly not on pavement either - so we will call it the better part of valor to have run short today.)

I was actually following a "run 10 minutes, walk 1" strategy to mitigate the effects of pavement - this was a tip brought to mind by some materials at the Running Room yesterday, and it worked very well.

At the store I bought a new pair of shoes - it was fiscally irrational, they are so much more expensive in Canada than in the U.S. and I will be in New York at the end of the month, but I have really worn the hell out of the old pair and have been uneasily aware this week (i.e. pavement rather than treadmill) of the near-complete lack of cushioning. And at least notionally I would be running 70-80 miles between yesterday and New York anyway - so I took the plunge and purchased them anyway.

(They are very good shoes, I tried another model just to be sure I should stick with these but there was no need to switch - they are the Mizuno Wave Inspire 6.)

The weather here is perfect Triaspirational running weather - overcast, a light drizzle (heavier at times), upper 50s. It was beautiful out there - hardly anybody else to be seen, but lots of ducks. Felt very asthmatic and overweight for first half hour, but it was smoother going after that - I do not really understand why the asthma gets better in the second hour than in the first, but it is fairly noticeable. I fear my November marathon will be discouragingly slow, but I don't think I should write it off altogether - I should be able to run a 4:40 or so even if I don't run as many training miles as I would like, and I think it is worthwhile, it gets me out of bed when I otherwise might be absolutely languishing...