11+ miles

Today I topped 11 miles for the first time. Officially, I walked the first 4 minutes, and ran 11.36 miles in 1 hr. 47.32 minutes, and burned 1288 calories. That was 9.29-minute miles. I then walked another mile after I was done.

I wasn't too enthused about running this morning, and the first half mile was the worst. But then I started to feel ok. However, I wasn't on pace with last week. I believe I hit the 10-mile mark at 1:34 (compared to 1:32 last week). And it took a full 10 minutes to go from mile 10 to mile 11 (1:44). So I was slowing down at the end. I would still be happy to average 10-minute miles in the half marathon, but I'm shooting for a sub-2-hour finish. So we'll see. It was a bit muggy already this morning, but not too bad at about 72 degrees F.

I covered basically the same course today, only I backtracked a little farther. I started down Lower Huntington to the Rivergreenway and went back behind Walmart, then went North on the Rivergreenway up to the Foster golf course. Then I returned and went back towards Walmart, but I turned around at the ball diamond where it is exactly 2 miles from our house. Then headed back home and ran most of the loop around our neighborhood (which is where I stopped the watch), and then walked another full loop afterward for a cool down.

I had a full glass of water, cup of coffee, egg beaters and a piece of toast before I ran. I weighed 147.2 after eating and before running. After running I weighed 142.4. Since then I've had another 2 glasses of water, a protein drink, my vitamins, and lifted my usual routine. I have yet to weigh myself. That would require getting out of this chair and walking back upstairs. It might take awhile before I can do that. My legs are a bit sore. Suppose I should take some Alleve and keep moving though.

Next week I'm thinking of heading toward Foster first, and running around the loop up there. Then I can see where I'm at mileage wise as to how far behind Walmart I need to go to get to the 12-mile mark. Then there is only 1 more mile to go before the half-marathon mark. Although I'm not sure if I should try to do 14 before the half or not (a half is 13 miles). I'll worry about that later.