8-Miler

Well, this morning was the last long run before next Saturday's half marathon.

I met eight people from ChampionsFit this morning at 6 for an 8-miler. They're in "maintenance" mode until July. The only person I knew was Susan, who I ran with for the first time last Sunday.

I stayed with the group for about a mile then Susan told Len to take me with him if he was ready to go. So, Len and I broke from the group. Len had an "old style" Garmin. I told him I wanted to be around 9:15 pace. We ended up running negative splits for almost the entire 8 miles and ended with an average pace per mile of 9:02. I felt really good this morning which was nice since I haven't had that for a while.

After finishing and while waiting for the rest of the group to come in, I did butt kicks and high knees. I read something earlier in the week suggesting this would improve form. I definitely need form improvement! I also tried to imagine tacking another 5 miles on today's run. That was next to impossible so I abandoned the thought before I became discouraged. I'll be in uncharted territory for about 4-5 miles next week. I'm hoping the "race environment" can lift me but that seems like a long distance to ride on emotion.

I'll rest tomorrow and chart out this final week's workouts. I've got weight training on Monday then I'll probably just go out a couple times during the week.