Longest run ever

My running has always been a sporadic deal. Starting up in the early fall, usually entering a race or two, then maintaining a minimal schedule through the winter was my m.o. until last year, when I kept it up until the end of May. This made starting again much smoother this past fall, and racing cross provided the incentive to be more consistent. Actually, due to the walking and hiking I did during my 11 months of unemployment a few years back, my mileage and ability to run without soreness or seriously hurting my cycling has be greatly improved. These factors lead to my 5 mile and 10K PRs last October. 6:45 miles is not exactly flying, but as a 44 year old who never ran seriously, I'll take it.

This winter running has been good to me. Despite fairly minimal cycling, my weight has stayed at a comfortable level, just five or six pounds above my summer racing mass (even in the best of times, I am no Rasmussen.) This benefit has been realized even though my weekly running mileage averages just 8-15 miles.

Last Sunday's choice of the 5K over the 10 miler at Foxboro was a good one, but it also made me realize that if I ever want to run a race longer than 10K, stepping up my mileage will be required. Today I decided to work in a longer than usual run. A review of my HR zone bar charts clearly showed my February runs have been fairly intense, while my bike rides have been all zones 1 and 2. An adjustment might be in order, so today I went out in the morning and tried to relax and run steady without driving up my heart rate. It was 16 degrees F when I left at 7:30, but the sun was strong and by the time I got done 1 hour and 5 minutes later, it was up to 27 with a real feel several hashes higher. Bogging down just a bit when I got past my usual 35 minutes duration, my HR crept up a tad from my efforts to keep a steady pace. My route went all over the place, some woods, some footpaths that connect the dorms at the local college, some fields, some roads. Running the approximate route through walkjogrun.net yielded an estimate of 12.5K, so my pace was in the low-mid eight minutes/mile range.

By noontime the temps were up to almost 40. I logged off work for a lunch ride, and motored out of the driveway on the cross bike with road tires on it. After 15 minutes I was in full TT mode (well, as full as you can get on a cross bike with a jacket on) and put in a good 20 minute effort at LT. I kept it brisk all the way home and pulled back into the house in exactly one hour, covering about 31K. Right back to work. :o)

I love telecommuting. Too bad it is only one day a week.