Longest Run This Year

Today, I did my longest run since October 2008. I have been limiting my long runs to one hour the past few months just to make sure I don't overextend what my right ankle can handle. I decided to drive down to Ocean Boulevard and run on the Long Beach bike path which I haven't done in a couple of months. I initially planned on doing 5 minute run / one minute walk intervals for an hour and a half, but it didn't turn out that way. After the initial 5 minutes I kept running thinking I would do the 1 minute walk break on the next interval. Well when the next walk break was supposed to come, I kept thinking maybe on the next one. So I just kept going and going.

Along the way about ¾ of a mile before the turnaround point I bumped into Katherine, Diane (the two ladies I ran with last December and the subject of my blog on: The Tale of Two Gimps), and another lady whom I didn't recognize (could have been due to oxygen debt), who were on their way back to where they started from. After passing each other with a quick hello and wave, we kept going our own ways, me: to, them: from. On my way back, I bumped into Todd, who is a coach for the Long Beach Team in Training group. I admire this guy. He runs barefoot and has completed more than 200 marathons by now. This was the reason I decided to run on the bike path, hoping to run into people I knew.

Today was not one of those feel good runs. I struggled the whole way and my legs felt heavy, in addition to the pain on my right ankle. What helped was seeing plenty of runners and other exercisers along the way. So finally after eschewing the one minute walk breaks, I ended up running non-stop for an hour and 15 minutes which like I mentioned earlier is my longest run in months. Total miles: 7.83, Pace: 9:34 minutes per mile. If I only knew I was close to 8 miles, I would have tried to reach that distance. Even though I was wearing my GPS watch, I had it set to time the 5 minute run/1 minute walk intervals and at that mode, it only gives my ongoing mileage based on the 5 minute run intervals. I only get the total distance of running and walking if and when I stop the watch and save the workout. The average pace really surprised me because I was running heavy and it felt a lot slower. My aerobic capacity must be getting better. Thank goodness for that. I hope I would be able to go farther as time goes on and as I increase my tolerance level for my ankle pain, as long as the tendon doesn't tear again as it did last October. I shall save the 5 minute run/1 minute walk workout for another day. Today, my body may have been the one that was running, but it was my mind that carried me through to my longest run this year.