Kenyan Way "long" Run - 8 Miles (Cut Back Week)

77deg
88% humidity
6am
(not exact; from memory as I have it written down at home but close enough)

I don't think it was any secret leading up to this past weekends 'long' run that it was a cut back week for me since I only mentioned it a bazigikazillion times.

And probably one of the last times I get to start with 0 miles under my belt at 6am when the rest of the KreW takes off.  With only 8 miles to run, well no sense in getting up early for that. :o)

So plan was as usual, only finally BI was actually going to show up to run (shes training for Nike Womens), and I made sure to let her and CD know ahead of time what my plan was:  3 easy and GMP for the last 5.  My disclaimer was simply because I knew BI wasnt going to be running that 'fast'.

I basically stayed with them through about 1.5 miles and slowly I started inching away from them.  It was obvious that CD felt she had to stay with BI, and that was fine with me.  I am sure BI appreciated it to no end as CD motivated her more than a couple of times I am sure.  At first I thought it might have been because they slowed down, but after dl'ing my stats from G, I knew it was I that got faster.

Dont have the exact deets here, but from memory, the first 3 miles were all around 10:30-10:35, which I really figured I would be doing 10:45's ... and then I went straight to anywhere from 10:00 to 10:15 for the remainder with one that almost came in at 9:55, but I slowed down when I saw it.  I did not want that. 

The average for the run came in at 10:17 pace, and 10:18 pace would put me at 4:29.  Which is actually my B goal, but for now its what I am 'training' for.  For.  now.  :O)

I am not going to lie, this was a tough one and I actually walked a time or two for less than 30 sec at a time, and even a few more times I slowed way down when I knew I had cushion to do so.  There were actually people walking a lot more than I expected to see, but it was brutal and I was thankful of the decrease in mileage. 

Now my schedule/training plan didnt call for any miles at GMP (too early for that), so taking this on was just something I wanted to do.  Usually the GMP training mileages are usually buried in a longer run of 17+, but in this SETexas weather in the summer training months, that just typically doesnt happen for me, so I take advantage of the shorter cut back weeks and give it a go.

This time it worked in my favor.

Next weekend will be my longest since mid-November.  15 miles.  And that was coming off of Chicago and still thinking at the time I was going to do the full in late January in Houston.  Looking at my calendar now, I dont go over 15 miles until July 23rd.  Fine with me!!!  :O) 

This will give me the extra time to become more acclimated with the heat/humidity (I havent done hot yoga for about 2 months now, so any tolerance I have remaining is minimal; but I am going once this week and then hope to be back at it more often as of next week).


Sunday: With so much going on, I felt lucky enough to get an 1.25 hours by the pool with .25 of that being swim/lap workout.  Feeling stronger in the pool, but still I always end up with that soreness or whatever it is in the left shoulder a few hours later.  Sucks.