Smiley Post...This Time, My Face Didn't Stay Pink for 8 Hours

I did it again.

Managed to take a good chunk of time off my long distance run.

Of course, the clouds rolled in and provided respite from the sun, so my "cooler temp" reasoning must be true

It's been an awfully busy month. A 3-day weekend in DC, a 4-day weekend in CA, two days in Austin, then the Socorro Sprint Triathlon. So, the training has suffered (what training?), and I haven't done my long training run route since July 13. That was the day I took a solid 30 minutes off of my usual 3 hour time.

Bones said,"Maybe you've broken through to a new level!"

I said, "I think it's because I actually got out earlier and the temps were cooler..."

Maybe it was a combination of both.

Sunday, I decided to get up early and go for a medium (6-7 mile) run, since I hadn't been training consistently and wanted to healthily ease back into it.

I didn't do either.

Instead, I got up a little later than I should have, got caught up in puttering around the house, hoped for more of the recent cloud cover we'd been having, but really didn't stick to my plan and left after 8 am when the sun was high and the UV was on it's way to contributing to a 10 plus day.

I was rested (from not training) and I felt pretty good.

So, I started at a good pace on my neighborhood run.

Then, I just kept on going.

Clouds rolled in briefly, and the dip in temperature gave me the extra impetus to continue the pace.

I kept rationalizing, "I'll turn around here. Nope, I'll turn around here."

Finally, I just kept on heading out. Already resigned to the massively sore legs I was going to have the next day. My long run course is the only one in which I have a set of past times for comparison, and I was feeling pretty good.

I hit the turn around (it's an out and back route) in 1:09.37

On the same course that I usually do in 3 hours.

Since I haven't been training endurance, I pretty much fell apart on the way back.

The sun came out even stronger than before.

I pretty much cooked.

So, my total run time was 2:41

Still faster than the usual 3 hours.

Or, maybe, I shouldn't consider 3 hours "the usual" any more.