Saturday Long Run

Time: 121:27
Distance: 17.68 miles
Pace: 6:52
Map

I'm not sure how I got roped into this run, but it's probably due to the fact that I missed Meagan's graduation in favor of racing last night. It wasn't so much the fact that I was racing, but more the fact that Let Me Run participants were all on hand. As a result of my skipping 90 minutes of sitting on the Queens lawn sweating while sedentary, I opted to help Meagan out on her long run. I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night as we were out the door around 6:30 and headed for Old Bell.

Meagan's coach wanted her to run 17 miles out at McAlpine which is her longest effort in quite some time. I originally had a speed development session planned for the day that I'll push off until tomorrow. Also, my 14 mile long run turned into a 17 mile long run. Not a huge deal in my eyes.

The run was fun and uneventful for the first 60 minutes. It's always good to get the first hour out of the way with few problems. I was scheduled to do 10 x 1 min on, 4 mins off, similar to last week's long run. The first one always sucks and it takes me until number three before I start to feel comfortable. Last night's race had my hamstrings in knots so I opted to only do 6 x 1 min on, 4 off.

Splits:
7:44, 7:20, 7:23, 7:14, 7:04,
6:54, 6:59, 6:48, 7:09, 6:59,
6:57 for the first 11 miles. I'm not sure what Meagan was thinking when she decided to start dropping sub-7 minute pace on her longest run of the year and only being 6 miles into the run. Ask her.

61.71 for .21 miles (4:48 pace); (4:01 rest at 7:00 min pace)
61.08 for .22 (4:40); (4:00 at 7:58)
61.34 for .23 (4:28); (4:01 at 7:42)
61:40 for .24 (4:15); (4:01 at 7:01)
62.91 for .21 (4:55); (4:01 at 7:12)
61.48 for .23 (4:23). I'm fairly sure the faster sections were measured accurately, not sure about the slow ones because I was looping back to run with Pezz and Meagan. Regardless, I got the legs turning over and felt strong doing so. I cut it short as I was starting to really tighten up and had already been running for 100 minutes.

Final miles were 6:36, 6:15 and a little extra to the parking lot. Very solid effort by all involved this morning.