Week 9: Six miles

This is the point where we start alternating long runs with shorter recovery runs on the weekend, so today was only six miles. I ran at Meadowbrook Park for and hour and 40 minutes or so, then finished my last lap walking, so I ended up doing nine laps altogether.

I noticed that I was doing laps fairly quickly, so I timed one, and it was 10:52 -- not quite eleven minutes. Either I was running way too fast (doubtful) or the laps are not 0.8 miles, as I'd thought. I suspect they're actually closer to 0.7 miles. Which would help explain why my 10-mile run was so hard -- the week before, I was supposed to do 8 miles, but that was the week I forgot my timer and had to estimate my distance by laps. I ran ten laps, thinking that would be around eight miles, but if each lap is only 0.7 miles or less, I really ran no more than seven miles. Which means that when I did my ten mile run, I was increasing my distance by three miles or more. I do remember that I began to run out of steam after about seven miles, so that would make sense. Today I did nine laps, and I was only doing six miles.

I measured the distance between my place and the park in my truck, and it was 9.9 miles. I also drove down Valley Blvd instead of Highline, and it seems to be a better road for running -- more sidewalks, paths, bigger shoulders, and slower speed limit so less worry about traffic. I could run from here to the park and then do another four miles of laps to get in my 14 miles next week. Or I may measure some other routes. I've got a week to figure out my route for next week.

Anyway, I felt pretty good today, and felt as though I kept up a good pace. For six miles, I should be able to!

My fundraising total for October was within three or four bucks of the amount needed to bring my total to $500, so I just contributed the whole amount. I think I should be able to scrape up another $500 sales and donations this month, which will leave me with only $500 more that I'll need to come up with on my own. Not bad.