In Stride – the Long Run

Last night we had a great opportunity for a last minute get-together with our friend Rob who is in town from the Boston area. Poor guy thought it was warm here. We had delicious meals at Paolo’s Ristorante, a great place on Wisconsin Ave in G-town. Rob and I had the pork special and Chad had the salmon special. We ate too much, too late. Oh, but it was good.

This morning Chad and I embarked on a long run. He had 90 min on his calendar but decided to run about 1 hr 45 with me since I had a 2 hr run. I need this run to get me back to pre-Sudan fitness. It wasn’t pretty, especially since both of us were feeling the late night and dinner. But eventually we got into a groove and I tried to keep pace with Chad as much as I could. As it turns out the average pace was about 8:15 minute miles although we were doing sub-7s at some point. Of course, my last 15 minutes alone were probably averaging 9 min miles. I was tired and as much as I wanted to stop running, I really needed this run. So now I’ve done it and all I have to do is get to 2 hr 30 min in two weeks. Chad and I should both do a couple more 2 hr 30 min runs before we start our taper Nov 9. Which will be one month away tomorrow.

Sunrise was beautiful. We got going around 6:10 am and by the time we were on the Mt. Vernon trail, about 30 min into the run the sky was a beautiful array of pinks and purples. We’ll have to remember cameras on one of these runs. Sunrise was officially 7:11 am today. The temperature was about 52. P-E-R-F-E-C-T running weather. Other than the fact that all the darkness makes it hard to wake up in the morning, this is a great time of year for training.