Seven Miles on a Country Road

I hope everyone is having a great Memorial day weekend! Today I am just relaxing, as I have no current plans. AND I’m blogging again today! Go me! So, this morning I had to run seven miles. And I did it! At first I wasn’t sure where I wanted to run, either up and down my country road, drive into town, or go to my high school track. I opted with the country road run! I wanted to save on gas, actually, and it was a beautiful morning, so it seemed like the best idea! I filled up my camelback and got to it.

I started out really slow, about an 11 minute mile…because I knew if I started too fast I would never make it! Apparently, this is key to running longer distances for me. I felt great the entire time! I only took one break, to stop back at my house after mile 4, and then finished the last three miles really strong. I felt amazing! It must have been the Naked Wine I had last night! 🙂 Either that or all the sugary sweets! I also saw one other woman running today! I have never seen anyone running on my road while I was out there before! It was awesome to see someone else running. I’m not the only crazy one to run on my road!

Of course I had my Garmin. I don’t know what I would do without this thing now. It makes running so much easier. I love it.  Here is my breakdown:

Total Miles: 7.0
Time: 1 hour, 12 minutes and 1 second
Average pace: 10:17/mile
Average speed: 5.8 mph
Maximum speed: 8.4 mph
Calories burned: 838

Splits:
Mile 1 – 10:40
Mile 2 – 9:50
Mile 3 –  10:49
Mile 4 – 10:55
Mile 5 – 10:51
Mile 6 – 9:58
Mile 7 – 8:53 (yeahh!)

I wasn’t even tired at the end and I probably could have kept going, but I was getting kind of bored. I couldn’t believe how good I felt at the end. If I feel this good running the Boilermaker in July, it will be amazing!

I also had time today to finish one of the running books I got from the library, Born to Run.

This is seriously one of the most fascinating books I’ve ever read! I can’t believe how many miles the superathletes in this book run. It was incredible!! Ah, so inspiring. I mean, I have no desire to go out and run an ultra marathon or anything, but while I was running my seven miles this morning I was definitely thinking about these people and if they can run 100 miles in 105 degree weather I can run seven on a country road. Ha!

So after my run I scavanged for food. I made a green (brown) monster and it was like the best thing I’ve ever tasted. There is no picture because I was too thirsty to take a second to snap one, but in it went: 1/2 cup of light soy milk, 1 cup spinach, 1 tsp of almond butter, 1/2 a banana, 2 frozen strawberries, and about 4 ice cubes. The rest of lunch includes some almonds, leftover spinach and cheese tortellini, and some strawberry rhubarb crumble for dessert.

As I was finishing my book, I enjoyed a glass of Naked Riesling and some dark chocolate. Yum! Now I just have to come up with something good for dinner…