Week 16: 1 mile + Magic Mile + 4 miles

20:40 second run/walk ratio
1:41:54 hours
6.38 miles
16.0 min/mile
15:54 Magic Mile

Pretty good run today, although I was confused about how long it was and messed up my Magic Mile! It started off as usual with three minutes walking to warm up, then he said, "Go for one mile!" and I wasn't sure whether that one mile run was supposed to be a warm up (because before we've always done 5 minutes run to warm up before a Magic Mile) or whether that was the Magic Mile. I decided to go ahead and push it a bit, in case it was the Magic Mile, but then when it was over, he said that now we'd start the Magic Mile. So there I was, on the uphill side, having already pushed for one mile, about to do the Magic Mile uphill all the way. Oops! I still pushed a bit, and felt pretty good, and in fact did my Magic Mile in under 16 minutes, so it was fine. And I don't worry that much about the Magic Miles anyway. I don't think the Magic Mile is very accurate for predicting marathon times at my speed. I don't really do my long runs much slower than my short runs.

But then I was wondering, when the day's run called for "Magic Mile plus 4 miles," whether that 4 miles included the warm-up mile before the Magic Mile. Turned out to be four more miles after the Magic Mile, so the total for the day was six miles. But I felt good the whole way, didn't get really tired at all. Partly the weather—even though I got a slow start, and didn't get to the park until around 9:20 AM, it wasn't very hot, no more than around 75 F, I think, and there was a nice breeze. Also, getting a little extra sleep this morning helped.

It was nice to have a good run, especially since yesterday I was considering skipping the long run this week! I had a really hard week, working on clearing the brush off my property. I'd worked for four hours in the heat on Thursday, and had to clear a fallen tree off the road as well, and Friday I was so sore and exhausted I just wanted to collapse. Didn't know if I'd be recovered enough to run today. But it was a short one, so I figured I'd just go and take it easy. I'm glad I did! I think the run actually helped work some of the kinks out of my back and shoulders, so I feel better than I did before I started.

Next week is another mile-extender—20 miles! The weather report is currently calling for 88 F and clear on Saturday. I'd better start setting my alarm so I'm used to getting up early this week. I want to try to get to the park around 6 AM so I can finish before noon.