LSD

5 miles (8 km) | 44:14 | 8:51/mile (5:32/km)

Today was long, slow distance. At five miles, it is my longest run of the year. It was a good run for several reasons.

First, I felt very good running. Though I haven't been running since we moved at the first of April until now, I have been riding my bike 13 or 14 miles a day five days a week (in two "workouts", my morning commute and my afternoon commute). That has given me a good base. I spend about 45 minutes on the bike per day, so a 45 minute run is not too bad. Also, since I started my training program (four runs ago!) I have not walked on any of my runs. Usually I have to mix in some walking when I am starting.

I ran down the the south side of the lake near us and back. At the halfway point my time was 21:10 (an 8:28/mile pace) and my split for the second half was 23:04 (a 9:14/mile pace). I considered trying to push it the last half, but stuck to my plan of a long run. Since my longest run of the year so far, at an easy pace, is under my marathon target pace, I can see that is completely realistic for me to run sub-4 hours (provided I stick to the program and get the mileage in to actually run a whole marathon).

Finally, it was a good run because I went out and did it. I didn't start until about 9:30 in the morning and the day had already become hot. It would have been too easy to put it off in favor of errands (grocery shopping, mowing lawn) and try to get it in later in the day. If I did that, though, it would be too easy to not do it at all. Putting an unscheduled day off on your long-run day is not a good recipe for success.

Tomorrow is cross training. I have convinced my wife to take a 41 km (25.5 mile, almost marathon distance) bike ride in two installments. We will ride to the Moesgaard beach south of the city, spend the morning and early afternoon on the beach, and then ride back.