Sluggish Start to Sunday

Time: 119:48
Distance: 18.07 miles
Pace: 6:37
Map

This morning, like most Sunday mornings started from the Boyce parking lot of McAlpine. Meagan and I jogged into the park and linked up with Caitlin. I was finally starting to feel the effects of all the training this week. I never got sore after the big track workout on Friday. However, the accumulation of miles has made the legs a little sluggish.

Just before 5 miles I met up with Nick Frank who arrived with some much needed water. We hit the course of 5k of solid running and then looked around for Meagan. She wanted to run 3 miles uptempo and Nick and I were going to serve as pacesetters. The plan was to run back toward Old Bell and cut in to the back section of wooded miles. Meagan was shooting to hit 6:00 minute pace. When we were about 800 meters in I could tell she wasn't feeling great as her breathing wasn't relaxed as it should have been. She ran tough and hit her splits but was done at the end.

Splits:
8:23, 7:50, 7:27, 7:19, (some early miles with Meagan and Caitlin)
6:51, 7:03, 6:38, (hooked up with Nick after grabbing some water)
5:57, 6:05, 5:52, (Meagan's faster section)
6:20, (easier mile back to grab water)
6:00, 6:03, 5:59, 6:10, (4 more miles of steady running)
6:27, 6:33, 6:25 (back off to finish up the run)

I was pleased to have company on the run today. I definitely wouldn't have averaged in the 6:30s had Nick not been there. At about 14 miles I was ready to call it a day, but Nick kept the pace honest and I just went along with it. I've had a big week and I'll be interested to add up all the miles.