First long run [2011 Running]

Yeah, I started my day off right and laced up the shoes. After sipping my coffee while posting earlier, I gained enough "awake-ness" to mentally be ready for my first long-run of the season; mind you, it was only (just shy of) 5 miles, which 'back-in-the-day' was an EZ Thursday mileage run.

Weather was really quite picture-perfect; 66/69 (begin/end) temperatures, slightly cloudy, and a 12 mph NW wind. I hit every direction with this run because I have two intersecting roads 200M from my house; one is a 3.0 mile out-n-back hilly course, and the other is a 1.8 mile out-n-back..also hilly course. I can't really run near my house and NOT run hills, kinda good and kinda bad. There are times (like today) where I was to just run a simple, easy long run, but those hills poop me out and I end up walking more than I'd like. The PRO is that my legs will eventually be trained to handle them, so a flat race-course will be EZ-peasy.

Our closest neighbor, who is the gentleman we purchased our land from, was out with his mower, so I stopped to give Buster, the BEST dog in the WHOLE WORLD, a little pat before continuing on my way. At the first turnaround, there is a LONG hill that is great on the way out; NOT so great on the way back as it's the climb. So, I walked. Right before connecting with the 2nd road's course, there is a loooonnnnng, steady climb where I walked quite a bit again. And then....FULL head wind once I turned onto my other road, plus....yeah....hills....so there was quite a bit of walking on that segment (9:09 "lap" time), so there were NO excuses after that turn around; I needed to run with the wind at my back, except for a little walk at Wabrowetz's hill. The running made the return "lap" time hit 8:18...much better.

My final 200 M back to the house, I really listened to my body; here's what it said:
after a full week of being back to training......
My legs felt really good; no lactic acid burn--they didn't feel 'heavy'--add some weights to my off-days, and my legs will shape up nicely to carry my body along. Mind you, losing a few more "excess" pounds will also make my legs' job easier.
My heart, on the other hand, still needs quite a bit of training. I'd like to run a flat training run to see how my heart would do, but I'm hitting too high of heartrate percentages for my EZ and Long runs. My long runs really need to be in the 80%'s, but as the graph shows, when running, I was in the 90's quite a bit......my walking brought the heartrate back down, but.....that's not the point. My heart needs training and LOTS of it to get back in shape and ready for this half-marathon in 7 weeks.

OH! And my run today put me past my TOTAL mileage from last year; definitely happy 'bout that! In another month, I should surpass my total from the last two years TOGETHER! :0)

If you are walking or running or exercising in your own way, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!! Your body will thank you eventually :0)