Windy 11

Sam was nice to her mama and slept well last night, which is always a good thing, especially when it comes to putting in a good running effort the next morning. She woke up once, around 4:45, before going back to bed until a little after 6:00, which means I at least got a solid 6 1/2 hours of sleep, followed by a bit of tossing and turning :-) I was out the door around 7:45, leaving Ryan to drop Sam off at daycare, something I rarely do, but which was necessary to get today's run in. I decided I would run Ryan's 11-mile River/Meadow loop, which I have run once before, and which I liked enough for a road run :-)

While I didn't notice it at home, once I got out into the open, I realized it was pretty windy out. Oh well. Can't do anything about that. I haven't looked at my Garmin splits yet, but I'm pretty sure the first mile was the slowest mile, right around 8:30, followed up by a nice 7:30 or so split, which put me right around 8:00 pace when I looked at my watch. I was feeling good, despite running into the wind, and thought I'd try to keep up the 8:00ish pace the rest of the way, you know, just to keep things interesting! I actually think I might have run pretty even splits for most of the run, with the miles ticking away right around 8:00s each and every time. Somewhere in the second half of the run, the pace dropped a bit below 8:00/per mile and that gave me the umph I needed in the final few miles to keep on cranking! Of course, miles 8 to 9 brought me up the last big hill, leaving me gasping a bit for oxygen at the top near Bisson's, where I was treated with the lovely manure smell by the cow pasture. Awesome :-) One final downhill and the last flat stretch along 201 to go, and I ended up with 11 miles in 1:26:46. I am glad I listened to myself yesterday when my body/head were telling me to take a bit of break. I think it paid off in today's run, and am extra happy to have been able to get in a good fast-for-me mid-distance run near the end of a big week of running.