5 miles!!!

I picked Adam up from work Saturday evening, and continued our new tradition of running in the National Forest together every Saturday. Luckily, Adam's plan was for an easy day, so he decided to stay with me for most of the run, which is always nice. I love having him by my side... or slightly ahead of, as he often is.

Anyway, he wanted me to run one of the nice side trails with him, so we did an out and back on a beautiful path to start the night. Going out on it was amazing. Sadly, my watch wouldn't get signal, so I don't have any exact speeds, but we were very quick (for me) going out on the trail, since it was mostly downhill and nice, soft dirt. I was feeling so good... all the pain was gone.

Then... we turned around... yikes... I think my body was yelling at me and saying, "I thought we were taking a break from all the uphills! Are you kidding??!!" But I told it to calm down and just make it back to the start so that we could take a quick break and get a drink of water. So... it hurt me a little going up the little steeper parts, but it kept going for me until we got back to the car. According to the maps and our own calculations, we're pretty sure that was right around 2.5 mi, and we finished in 23:something. The first half being really quick, the second half much slower. So we averaged pretty good.

Anyway, I gave my body the promised water and quick rest, then we were off on the main road to get the rest of our run finished. I knew I wanted to do 5 miles total, so we went out 1.25 before I turned around. Going out, I was thinking about stopping at the turn, but I have realized that on this road, I always feel a ton better coming back, so I pushed through and ran the 2.5 without any rest. I wanted things to average out to a pretty good pace, so I set the goal on the way back to finish my 5 miles in a total of 47 minutes, and I managed to finish in 46:40. So, I was way excited and pleased. It was a great run, and I felt great doing it, and even sprinting the last little stretch (always my favorite part) was pretty easy to do.

The new Brooks were amazing. My feet and legs felt wonderfully cushioned and supported. Definitely a great shoe for the pregnant me. Thanks for the advice, Adam. You always know best with shoes. And, I love running with you!