First Long Run

Sunday evening, my friend and I planned to run 5 miles. On my marathon schedule, I was slated to run 8. So I decided to run 3 by myself before our run, and then do the 5 with her. This made me a little nervous because her pace is a little faster than me and I was going a total distance I haven't ran in months. I didn't want to ruin her 5 miles. So I ran my first 3 miles very conservatively, along side the trail in the mud to help save my legs. I was nicely warmed up when we met up and began the 5.

I noticed our quicker pace, especially having just ran so slowly. But I fell into a rhythm, and found it to be not bad if I didn't try to talk too much. At the turnaround, we stretched. Then coming back became a little rough for my friend. Turns out she had ran a 5K the day before and her quads were sore. This got worse and worse as we neared the end, and we had to walk a bit here and there.

I am guessing it was the slow 3 and then all the walking during the end of the 5 that allowed me to feel like I had run no more than 3 total. After we made plans for our next run and parted, I went around the block, tacking on another maybe 3/4 mile in order to make sure I actually ran 8 miles total.

I felt great and I'm only a little bit sore today, so overall I'm happy to have had a good-feeling first long run.