11 miles

11 miles 1:37:17 8:51 pace
It was the perfect day to run - 50 degrees in the middle of January? Crazy I know. I am more convinced that I made the right choice to run a spring Marathon to train during the winter/early spring rather than fall marathon and train during the summer (hot). I hope this crazy weather keeps up for my training sake. I have to say I am sad we haven't seen much snow for the kids sake.


The run went just fine. I started out slow and truly didn't feel warmed up until mile 4. I then felt I found my pace. I kept telling myself to just take it easy. And for the most part I think I did. We will see as the mileage increases on these long runs. It felt great to be outside, my left lower leg/ankle didn't hurt at all so I am thinking it's the treadmill. I really love my new Mizuno running shoes.

I did bring my hand held water today. I had a mini Luna bar before the run (I admit I had two beers last night and hardly any water). I took with me 3 Cliff Shot Blocks and REALLY liked them (I used gels in the past and felt they didn't do much). I took the Blocks right at mile 6 - about 54 minutes into my run. I chased them with water and really felt they gave me a burst of energy. Easy and sorta fun to chew and didn't seem to upset my tummy.

I broke up my run into about 6 segments (different areas on my route). It helps to realize each segment is a good 2/3 miles and you are that much closer to your mileage. I don't know, everything felt good today and I hope this continues.

I let Pandora Shuffle ( my mix of stations) and some songs that made me smile/helped me on my run were: Stones "Monkey Man", REM "Orange Crush" and Counting Crows "Mr Jones"
Here are my splits today:

i	Pace (min/mi)	Elevation (ft)
1	9:33	10
2	9:32	-23
3	9:12	18
4	9:12	4
5	8:40	4
6	8:41	4
7	8:36	-15
8	8:24	7
9	8:23	10
10	8:31	-21
11	8:33	3
12	8:33	0