Since we had soooo much going on Thursday and Friday, I decided to run my long run on Saturday. It just happened to work out perfectly, because my running peeps were running their 17-miler on Saturday and there was a great place to park exactly 2.5 miles into their route! I could meet them, run their out and back course, and get my 12 miles in - and I could catch up with everything that has been going on with them at the same time - SCORE!
The temps were great for a long run - 50 degrees! There was a little humidity, but nothing too severe. For some reason, I decided to wear a long sleeve technical shirt over my short sleeve one - that was totally unnecessary and I was taking it off before we reached mile 2. I brought my Garmin with me as well, since I just received a new power cord for it...the Garmin people are helping me trouble shoot the problems I've been having. The replacement Garmin they sent to me is now doing the same thing the old one did - turning off during my run for no apparent reason. Well, when I arrived at the meeting point for the run, the freaking Garmin would not even power on!!! Grrrr!!! And, this was the 1st time since April that I've run with a fuel belt...it felt a little weird to be wearing it again.
The first 7-8 miles felt pretty easy. I have no idea of our pace, but it felt like a good effort. I was happy not to push it too hard, because I really hadn't been running as much as usual over the past couple of weeks...I just wanted to finish the distance this time. Around mile 9 or 10, I started to notice my left IT band making itself known - it wasn't horrible, but it was there. At the same time, I began to notice that my hip flexors hurt. That pain was new to me, so I am wondering if it was just the different route. My usual neighborhood route is very flat. This route had the teeny bit of slope on the shoulder of the road, plus there were some gentle inclines that my body is probably not used to. Yeah, those last two miles were ugly - my hips hurt and it seemed like I'd never get back to my car, but we pushed on.
My goal is to do 2 more 12-milers between now and taper time...and, I am hoping that they will get easier each time. Next week is an easy, peasy 10-miler for me and it looks like it's going to be nice and cold - yay!
The rest of the day flew by...we decorated for Christmas, took the kiddos to McD's for lunch and then hung out around the house. I am loving the holidays with the kids! It's so fun to see them get so excited about the decorations and tree - good times!
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