Comparing Two Long Runs

The last 2 long runs I posted about (seen HERE and HERE) were the exact same length. I remembered how far I went on my first run as I was finishing up my second run (near the end during the cool down), and I realized they'd be similar. My most recent one I called a "fast long run" and I felt great (and fast). Let's compare.

The first long run averaged 6:31 pace for the middle 5 hard miles (32:36). The second long run averaged 6:20 pace for the middle 5 hard miles (31:43 - nearly a minute faster). But the overall time and distance were VERY similar as I ran the cool down a lot slower in that second run - it was my first training run "down by the river" in MONTHS, and I had a big hill to climb to get out of the river valley.

Here's my overall info for those 2 runs:

The "fast" run was only 0:02 faster overall, but it was also 30% hiller "down by the
river" vs my "boring social distance runs" straight up and down my road lately.

That second run by the river (Oct 26) felt SO good because those middle miles were so fast! But OVERALL on paper, they are so much more similar than that. There's something about a good race that keeps me running fast for a few weeks after...