Best.Run.Ever.

Sunday morning I finally got in my long run of the week. I had originally planned on doing so on Saturday, however I accidentally took a 3-hour nap after lunch instead. Whoops!

I plotted a new 4-mile route around my neighborhood, running the first two miles along 7th Ave (my favorite), and then ending at my gym so I could lift. I knew my bike was still at work, which is right by my gym, so I could bike home afterwards.

I started out a little on the slow side, worried that I would burn out and not make the full 4-miles. This was the most mileage I had done since October (!!) and my first outdoor run in a good long while. It was perfect.

The first 2.5 miles are just an out and back along 7th - only one block away from where I live, this street is full of enormous homes on well manicured lots and it makes me smile. They went all-out with Halloween decorations and I'm sad I didn't run at all during December to see how the houses were done up. Going east during the first mile or so, there is just the slightest incline, which makes for a slower first mile, but feels good going west during the second mile.

I was aiming for run five/walk one but found that I felt so good I was flying by the 5 minute mark without even noticing, so I bumped it up to run 6 or 7. I didn't have any side stitches, my legs felt great, my lungs burned just a tiny bit. The weather was perfect, I had worn the perfect amount of layers, and my ipod playlist kept throwing out perfect songs to keep my pace.

I tried to track my pace using my phone, but at the first walking point, I tried to check it, realized it wasn't working right, and gave up. I definitely think my last mile was my fastest, though. I really pushed the pace to try to get to my stopping point by 44 minutes, but ended up getting in there around 46:30. Total mileage was 4.1 miles, which meant I had an average pace of about 11:20 with the walking. Any ideas about how much the walking adds to the pace, oh ye crazy runners? I'd be curious what my running pace was.

Either way, this was one of those confidence boosting runs where you realize "ok, I can do this." and makes me actually like running again. As much as I hated that I kept screwing up Katie's workout and repeating week one, I think doing all of those short runs at a faster pace has helped me out overall. I'm ready to really buckle down and make training a priority; also my pants are starting to not fit again, so the timing is perfect :)