Kenyan Way - "Long" Run

6 days off DWR and I wasn't sure how my legs were going to feel going the distance this morning.

Because of the route (geared more towards the full marathoners this morning), I had to figure out how to do my miles.  10 miles per the email were to take the loop around Rice and back but I knew I didn't want to run on that surface for a full 3 miles so I followed everyone else until my Garmin hit 5 miles and turned back.  I sure felt like I was running way faster than what the Garmin ended up showing me, but I guess my legs were a bit more dead than I thought they would be.

The 10 miles came in at 10:28 pace and I still managed a negative split.  Once I got to base, I got some water and ran over to the cloverleaf for hills.  One trip up and down all 4 'leaves" is 1 mile so I ran 2 miles of hills.  I sure could tell I havent done any hill work for monnnnths!  I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest.  I then got the bright idea that I was going to stop at the base of one of them and instead of running up the other side, I was going to tackle this one huge steep one up to the bridge.  I made it about 1/2 way up and thought I was going to topple over and tumble right back down it.  Too steep!  And it was slippery from all the dew and I also think it might have rained a little overnight.  I turned my Garmin off for the 2 miles of hills because I just wanted to run them, reap the benefits and not worry/know about the time it was taking me.  I am pretty darn sure my legs are going to be reminding me tomorrow of those damn things!

The weather was waaaaaaay more humid than I thought it was going to be, and a bit warm in the 60's ... so I definitely felt the increase in temps overall today as well.

My plan going forward for the next couple of months is to include 2 miles of hills at the end of each run on Saturday.  The first 6 miles of Houston have several 'hills' in it and I don't want to go into it not having done any prep work whatsoever.

Now off to work at the Locker!