10 miler!:)

Wow, I still can't believe I actually ran a 10 miler! I have been running a fair amount lately because of our damn winter here in Colorado. Climbing has been sporadic at best this winter, but I have been trying to at leased keep a base fitness level.

Our weather this weekend consisted of snow, snow, and more snow. Danielle and I decided to get a little climbing in, but we both really wanted to get a run in before the end of the day. I took a break from Evolv and met D at the Erie Rec Center. We both have been just trying to get some miles in to build our base up to start training for the ROCK AND ROLL MARATHON this coming fall. Danielle has been doing a walk/run program and today she completed her first 4 miler with minimum walks. I am soo proud of her:) I had a wild hair up my ass to try and complete a 10 miler. My longest run to date has been a 7.5 miler a couple of weeks ago. I have been keeping my mileage to 3's, 4's, 5's and a couple of 6's. I have noticed that my lunges and legs have been feeling stronger and stronger.

The 10 miler went as such;

I started off casual for the first couple of miles and sped up slowly until I was doing 8's. I felt really good at mile 5 and 6, but my left toes started to hurt. I really tried to keep my technique up and not get too sloppy. I noticed around mile 8, that my left knee started to hurt and the indoor track's corner's were becoming a pain. I have had this knee issue before and a friend told me that I needed to stretch my IT band more often. The indoor track is an 11 lap miler, so the corners are way too frequent for my taste. This may be what aggrivated my knee. I did have thoughts of stopping, but I was letting my body do what cam natural. The toe pain decreased and my knee pain just became more manageable. It became harder and harder to keep up my form and my pace slowed down as well. I focused as best I could to finish the run. I was pretty psyched to actually do the 10 miles, but was pretty wiped out. I stretched, drank my recovery drink, sat a while and went home. Danielle cooked a great dinner of fish, veggies, rice and finished it off with cheese cake.

I ran my first 10 miler in 1:28:00. I felt like a ran for an hour and a half, that's for sure.