Two Unusual (and Similar) Long Runs

I posted last week about how 5 out of the last 6 long runs have been "odd" for some reason. The only "normal" long run in these was a good one though! I then wondered if my next long run would be any good because it'd be right after a Super Bowl party with lots of junk food (well, starting with a lot of fruit!).

Well, it ended up being a bit odd, but not BAD! It started slow and heavy: the half-mile splits of my warm-up all got slower, and that's never a good sign. And then when I picked it up for my 6 harder/faster "pace miles" in the middle, they didn't start fast: my first 2 harder miles were 6:29 and 6:28. Ouch.

Then after a more normal 3rd mile (6:15), I turned around. But I started feeling good. I upped the pace (apparently) as my next 2 miles were 6:10 and 6:05 (with half-mile splits of 3:10, 3:00, 3:00, and 3:05). I was still feeling decent, so after a rough start to this run, now I was telling myself to do 6.5 miles harder instead of just 6! So I finished off mile 6 in 6:04 (3:04 and 3:00) and then went a final half mile in 2:58.

All in all, my workout looked like this:

2.5 mile WU: 18:54

6.5 pace miles with half mile splits of 3:20, 3:09, 3:16, 3:12, 3:10, 3:00, 3:00, 3:05, 3:04, 3:00, and 2:58 = 40:36 (6:14.77/mile pace)

19:16 first 3 (6:25.33/mile), 18:21 next 3 (6:07.00/mile), 2:58 last half mile
...OR...
19:16 first 3 miles, 18:03 last 3 miles.

2.53 mile CD: 19:20

11.53 miles in 1:18:21 (6:48 pace)

So the only thing that made this one unusual is that I went harder for 6.5 miles instead of 6. I started easier (although I felt like I was working - I think I had to "work through some stuff") and then ended harder. 18:03 for the final 3 miles is nice!!

That was last week's long run... and oddly enough, THIS week's long run looked very similar! This week, I took off for my normal harder 6 "pace miles." I tried to keep the start faster than the slow start last week, but didn't do it that well. After 4 of these harder 6 miles, I thought "hey, I'm speeding up and feeling OK yet... maybe I should do 6.5 miles like last week!" So I did. The big thing was I didn't want to slow up to plan for that extra half mile, so the half mile after I decided to go a bit farther ended up being REALLY fast (because I was trying to keep it from being extra slow). Find that split here in my pace miles (shown as half-mile splits as usual):

3:20, 3:16, 3;15, 3:07, 3:08, 3:06, 3:04, 3:06, 2:54, 3:04, 3:05, 3:00, 2:59 = 40:32 (6:14.15/mile)

12.13 miles in 1:23:38 (6:54 pace)

So my pace miles this week were about a 1/2 second faster/mile, and my overall run was 6 seconds slower/mile. Those were 2 decent runs!

And then as I biked to class later that day, I saw a BIG group of turkeys:

Yes, I often see turkeys in trees on my river runs too!
(See that one up there?)