Best Run So Far!

WOO~HOO!!!

Been waiting for this day for a long time! I finally had a really good LONG run! I have had my share of great short ones, but never a good long one until today! It seemed everything went perfect for me today. First of all my body actually wanted to get out. There are some days when I just crave running. Today was one of them. When I hit the pavement it was 60 degrees! Ahhh.....heaven! That in itself could have been the reason I wanted to get out there! This has been THEE longest winter ever! The only drawback for today was, (well, there were two) 1) I had to run alone because Jen was running the SLC Marathon today and 2) the wind was blowing insanely! As far as the first drawback, just knowing Jen was running as well, helped keep me motivated. I knew whatever miles I did would be a drop in the bucket compared to what she was doing. We texted each other a couple of times and I could tell she was doing great, but was battling the wind as well. My plan was to only go six miles today, since it is still my recovery week. But once I got out there and was feeling so good, I wanted to go farther. I just kept adding on extra streets here and there and decided to just keep going until I thought I was at about 9 miles. My lungs felt great! I loved having the feeling that I could just keep going on and on. My knees only bothered me at the start and then were fine. The only real complaint would be my glutes! Well, just one glute! Not sure if I'm still sore from last week or what! And for some weird reason the bottom of my toes were hurting. But, all in all, I felt so good. Now, if it just wouldn't have been windy. I didn't mind it unless I was running against it. When I did that, it was so strong that I felt like I was barely moving. It was really powerful. I tried to avoid heading face on into it and as a result I ended up running on the side of this hilly slope. The ground was totally unstable and I knew I was risking injury by doing that. I got off as fast as possible. When I got to my house, I just kept going and headed to the park to do a loop there. I wasn't ready to stop. When I got back around I decided to go get a drink and check on Google Earth how far I'd gone. I even ran up my steep hill! I never do that. I got my drink and googled it and it was only 7.56 miles. I was really surprised because I thought I had gone farther than that. I also thought I was doing a pretty decent time, but when I paced it out, it came down to about 10-11 minute miles. I guess that's not too bad for a long run. I wanted it to be at least an even 8 miles and so I headed up the mountain to put in another half or so. I was so amazed that I didn't want to crash and die when I got back like last week. I am sure there are several reasons why today was so good. The first has to be that my body needed the rest that I gave it this week. I also ate well yesterday. I even had a 3G Energizer drink from Jamba Juice. Sure that didn't hurt! Or it could have been the heavenly food from the Olive Garden I ate last night. I only slept for about 5 1/2 hours last night and that didn't even affect me. I keep wondering if I should have just gone for as long as I felt up to it. But maybe then I would have overdone it and this recovery week would have been in vain. Either way, I am pumped!!! It feels good, especially after Thursday's discouraging run. Total Distance: 8.25 miles

WAY TO GO JEN!!!!!