Week 16: Nine miles

2:27 hours, 2:3 minute run/walk ratio

Not a bad run today, but not a great one. I got off to a bit of a late start—the decaf coffee I drank at a café yesterday afternoon wasn't so decaf, and I was buzzed for the rest of the day and had a hard time sleeping, so I didn't get up until 7:30 am, and didn't get out onto the road until 9:30-ish. The wind was working against me today, blowing so hard that it made quite a headwind on several of my miles, and slowed me down quite a bit. And my whole left side was giving me pains, in my lower back, butt, hamstring, and across the bottom of my foot. I don't know what that was all about. Plus, I kind of had to go to the bathroom from the middle of mile 3 on. Not enough to have to stop, but enough to make the rest of the run a bit uncomfortable.

Also, I hadn't clipped my toenails in a while, and my right little toenail made a bit of a hole in the next toe. I wore my new Nikes for the first time, and they were pretty comfortable otherwise.

Still, despite all the complaints, I averaged 16.3 minutes per mile, and kept up my run/walk intervals for the whole run. Not too bad for my first long run after being in the hospital.

I think I will slow down to a 1:3 minute run/walk ratio for my 20-mile run next week. It's hard enough keeping up the 2:3 on nine miles.