Decent Long Run (For It Being Feb... and Me Being Injured...)

I felt decent about this one. After I went for a wet bike ride on Sunday and found spots of the trail that were still icy, I altered my long run on Monday to head down the Greenway a bit so I could turn around before it got REAL icy 0.75 miles past Lake Street.

Faster "pace miles" as half-mile splits #5-17.

It was 50+ degrees on Saturday and Sunday, and it was still 38 degrees when I went for my run on Monday morning. But being the ground is still frozen, as soon as the sun went down, all the "dampness" that I rode through on Sunday turned to ice before my run on Monday. It slowed me up a LITTLE, but wasn't too much of an issue.

I climbed the big hill just past split #13 before turning around at the top where it got extra icy. I had slower opening "pace miles" of 6:27 and 6:23, but I'd been speeding up since: I then ran a 6:08 and 6:07, and then the split that included going up that big hill was 5:58! I almost PERFECTLY descended my splits, but split 11 of 12 took a lot out of me as I climbed that little hill up under the Lake Bridge, so my final mile was just back over 6:00. Here were my half-mile splits:

6 miles at pace: 3:17, 3:09, 3:13, 3:10, 3:06, 3:02, 3:04, 3:03, 3:00*, 2:58, 3:05**, 2:57

= 37:09 (6:11.50 pace)

* up the big hill
* up the smaller hill under the Lake Bridge

There was no stopping to shit on this run! I was hurting, but it felt good to keep dropping time on those splits. It felt like the 2024 TC 10 Mile where I was hurting, but on the PERFECT VERGE of hurting TOO much - I was working hard but happy with my splits as they dropped.

My butt is still a bit tight/sore after these runs, but it's not bad, and nothing like it was last month. So I'm on the upswing! I'm making sure to ice it well after good workouts and also stretch it out nicely. (Not at the same time.)