The Long and Hilly Road

Saturday was scheduled to be a 9 mile run.  Well, lately, it seems my long runs are creeping to a day after they are scheduled.  Not such a big deal...they are still getting done!  Chasey's birthday party was on Saturday and the morning was icky, so the long run moved to yesterday afternoon.  It was chilly and breezy, but the sun made an appearance, so it wasn't too bad!  I did get a little sunburned on my nose, though...  :(

My 9 Mile Route with Elevation


The elevation map may not make it look like much, but that portion highlighted in red with green arrows?  That is a giant...long...hill.  I realize it is only about a 60ft change in elevation, but it is long (about .4 miles) and it sucks.  I had to run up it twice.  There were lots of other places with hills, but that one kills me every single time and I run it just about every time I run.

My Run Report from my Nike +

My Nike + always shows that my pace is all over the place...I can't run at a consistent pace, it seems.  I'm working on this and getting better, but I appear to have a ways to go.  It looks like I'm doing some sort of fartlek training.  My splits, however, look a little better!

Overall Pace for the Run was 10'13"/Mi

It looks like I'm getting closer to keeping some sort of even pacing, based on my splits.  They are all withing 30 seconds of 10'00"/mi!  I would say that is pretty good for me.  I am shooting for 10'00" miles for my long runs, so I feel like I'm getting closer to where I need to be.

I just want to note that it is amazing how much a good or bad run can make or break how you feel.  Two weeks ago, with my 7 mile run, I struggled really bad and started worrying that I couldn't do this whole long-distance running thing.  I ran my 8 mile on the treadmill last week, where I had the comfort of controlling my environment.  This week, I knew I had to get back outside in the wind and whatever else to see where I was at.

Let me just say...it is crazy what a good run will do for you, as far as building you up.  I felt great on my run yesterday.  I ran a solid 9 miles and the only thing holding me back was my knee and my leg muscles getting a bit crampy.  Endurance-wise, I felt great and like I could have kept going!  I recovered fairly quickly after each hill and   I was sore afterward (after I rested for a bit), but was still so happy that I was able to do it.  It is a great run like that...where I feel like I won...that makes me tell myself "Hey!  You can totally do this Half Marathon thing!  This is your year for you, Katie!"  Lame?  Maybe, but it works for me.  It is what it is.

After my run (on which I burned over 1,000 calories!), I wanted pizza for dinner (SALT! YUM!).  I ate my piece and a half of chicken and green olive on garlic butter base (Thank you, Mr. Large $5 Pizza...I LOVE YOU even if you know my pizza and think it is weird!) and my slice of cheese bread and loved every bite of it.

Now, as I sit here struggling to get through my Monday morning...knowing that the next few weeks I am going to be SO ON EDGE (worse than I have been the last few weeks)...I can remind myself that at least my run yesterday made me realize that I'm capable of doing what I deem to be great things (even it has to do with nobody, but myself).


XOXO