The Long Run

Well today i set out for the first long run of this training period.  It kind of reminds me of the time when i was in college at Jacksonville McKneese State Technical University Junior College of Mobile, AL.  I was the best runner they had and i still e-mail my coach, Mike Smith, to this day with all my running times.  He must be impressed because his last reply was "good for you."  Sometimes i make the drive back to cheer on the ole team, and although they don't show, i know that they remember me.  It must be because of my speed and talent!  It drives jealousy throughout them and they are unable to deal with it....  I made an offer to the new coach that I could come out to one of their practices and speak to the team about 1) Dealing with the pressures of being fast 2) being humble about it; and 3) how to deal with slow people.  After all, if you aren't humble with slow people they get all mad and stuff!  And then who is going to give you water during a race?

well anyways, today is the first long run i scheduled and it was for 26.2 miles with a goal time of 2:30.  I know, I know... i need to step up my game and not set such a slow and easy goal time, but you know, its day two and i am just trying to get the "rust out" as we say.  Here are the splits from my run:

Mile 1: 4:45
Mile 2: 7:12
Mile 3: 8:30
Mile 4: 9:00
Mile 5: 9:15
Mile 6: 7:00
Mile 7: 10:00
Mile 8: 11:00
Mile 9: 15:00
Mile 10: 16:33

When I set out for a run this morning, i never figured that it would be this cold and there would be snow on the ground.  You see when i normally run at a 4:45 clip, it is sunny and there is no snow on the ground which prevents fast people from running fast.  There also was a lot of headwind and hills and you gotta take that into account.  I started off conservative with a 4:45.. I was feeling good, but then after the first mile i got a huge cramp.  By the time the second mile was through at a 7:12 clip... the cramp got worse and must have hurt my upper respiratory because i seemed to have been breathing pretty hard.  I ate a banana two days ago and i think my body was hurting because it was still in my system.  You see, you have to get fueled up properly if you wanna run fast.  Normally i would have killed this run in under 2:30 as that is an easy time and if you can't hit 2:30 then you pretty much suck as a runner.  I knew this girl, i think her name was Kara, and she ran like a 2:34 or something.  She was so happy about it (loser)... i told her "listen, if you want to take running seriously, you are gonna have to drop like 50 pounds and maybe train with men."  She walked away so i think she went to adhere to my advice.... Later that year she ended up winning this little Rock'N'Roll Race in Chicago in like 1:09 which is an ok time... but good for her. 

Anyways, i think i'll hit my 26.2 tonight.  This morning served as a good 10-mile recovery run.