Training run

Today my half-marathon training called for an easy 6-mile run. The forecast was hot, and we had a family wedding this afternoon, so I got myself up about 7:15 to eat and head out. Much better eating today. Yesterday, I was dragging practically the whole bike ride. Today's 1/2 whole wheat English muffin with peanut butter, chocolate milk, and banana was just right.

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Lots of other people were hitting the trail early, too.

I was going to take pictures at each mile, as suggested by Tall Mom, but since the camera I use is my phone, which is strapped on my arm as I run and has to be taken out of the armband to take a picture, I only ended up taking one picture.


nature trail 7-17
This doesn't even come close to showing what a pretty trail we have, but oh, well.

This trail slopes gently pretty much the whole way.


nature trail slope

Normally, because it's closer to my house, I start near the 3-mile mark on the elevation chart and run down. That's great for the first half of the run but misery on the return. Today, I drove a little further and started where the chart starts. I ran up while I was fresh and then turned around for the return. Much better! I ran the whole 6 miles and ended feeling strong. I definitely could've run longer.

My phone lost its GPS signal for a chunk of time on the way back. I marked laps for the first 4 miles but not for the last two because the distance was off. I was super excited when I first looked at the readout and saw that my time moving was 53:41`. That's less than a 9 min. mile average!! 8:56, to be exact. I was ecstatic, since that blows away my 5K pace!

Except, of course, that it's not true. What I was looking at was the time it logged me moving. Unfortunately, it logged that GPS-less space as time stopped. When you add that time back in, my pace was about 9:56. Still respectable, expecially considering I wasn't trying to go fast and my target pace was 10:55...but a crushing disappointment when I thought I'd gone so much faster.

Pouty Jacob
Yeah, this is about how I felt.

And...OK... I should have realized there was no way I went that fast. But I didn't. [Expletives deleted.]

The splits, which I am taking with a grain of salt at this point:
11:39, 9:46, 10:20, 10:55, 9:39, 7:22

Even downhill, I don't think there's any way I ran the last mile at 7:22. All of the readouts from the run are goofy. It only recorded elevation for the last mile, has me running at 0 mph for about 1 1/2 miles, and has my pace a 0 min/mi for a different stretch of the run. All this, in the center of my town. Maybe I should trade the shade for an open path. Of course, then I'd have great satellite coverage of my slog though the heat.

Stuck between a Rock and a Hard Place

On the plus side, I ran 6 miles without struggling at all. I felt strong. Eh...crap. I don't feel like being positive right now. I'm bummed.

They aren't, though!

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Congratulations to my sister-in-law and her new husband. :)

Weekly stats:

Running: 13 miles
Biking: 17 miles
Swimming: 50 yards (gotta start somewhere, right?)

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