went longer
to beat the heat of mid-July, i was geared up and out running shortly after six this morning. thankfully, the sky was overcast which kept the sun from warming things up too quickly. unfortunately, the clouds did bring a light rain as i made my way west along the glacial drumlin. i’m not a big fan of running in the rain. some folks romanticize it but i just don’t dig it. thankfully, it didn’t last long and i could simply focus on swatting the deer-fly’s that were biting my neck & shoulders.
i took my time on my way out to the next town west of us and averaged a leisurely average pace of nine minutes per mile. i stopped for a moment to get some water then doubled back and headed home. one benefit of this route is that it is downhill for the return trip. without much added effort, i rolled eastbound averaging eight minutes per mile and stopped my watch at home with an overall average pace of 8:30 per mile for thirteen miles.
honestly, it was nice to finish a longer run and still feel like i could have run longer and/or faster. it was a bit more humid out this morning, which was my main reason to ease back on the initial pace. regardless, today’s effort capped off my weekly miles just a bit north of fifty miles…which is likely the longest i’ve run in a week this year.
looking back at the month so far, i have taken three days off out of the first sixteen days but have pushed past one hundred miles in that span. scoring a surprise age group win on the fourth has also given me a bit more of pep in my step, even though i do realize my time was sub-par. i did take a peek at the web site for the upcoming North Face event in mid-September and none of the races have sold out, yet. as far as immediate goals, i’d like to see if i can muster two hundred miles for the month of July. at this point, it looks like it should be possible but only time will tell.
MTD – 101.25 miles
YTD – 837.75 miles
Odometer – 31,944 miles