Last "Shorter" Long Run

In my "race course preview" that I posted yesterday, I failed to mention that my legs WERE working after being hit by a car this past weekend! Yay!! The accident was Saturday, and I had to limp into urgent care to get my chin stitched up because my left calf was strained - I had pain the moment I stood up after being hit.

But Sunday, my calf felt TOTALLY fine.

So Monday I decided to try a last long run before this weekend's race. I really didn't know if it would work, so I figured I'd just loop through my neighborhood in case I needed to stop.

Things felt "normal" from the start. Just 0.2 miles in, I was stopped by a friend/neighbor and her daughter saying "You're RUNNING already?!?" We had a little chat on the side of the road, and then I kept going.

If I hadn't been hit by a car 48 hours before, I would have maybe done 8-9 miles with 3-4 "at pace" (but not "hard") in the middle just to keep my legs moving fast. I figured I would need to take it a bit easy, so AT BEST I was planning on doing 2 miles easy, 2 miles "at pace" if my legs felt like they could do that, and then a 2 mile cool down for 6 miles total.

But I felt so good that I did that 2 mile warm-up, and then THREE miles "at pace," and then I just kept running until I had done 8.1 miles total. Here were the 3 loops (about 2 miles each, plus more added on at the end) that I did around my neighborhood:

Compare that map to my 2 longest runs pre-race and you'll see I usually go 3x farther south (and add on bits while doing that). Deciding to "just" run around St. Thomas seems very short, and it's nothing I've ever done. On this route, I'm always less than 1 mile from home.

Message I sent to my neighbor and her daughter post-run. :)

Off to the (unofficial) races on Sunday! Check back for a race report!