Saturday I completed my first 9 mile run. It was quite cold, 35 degrees, but clear and sunny. I plotted out a 3 mile loop from my house with plans to run it three times, perhaps stopping home to warm up. As always, the first 3 miles felt ok but took a fair amount of mental effort. As I passed the house, the first time around, I started to feel really into it, and decided there was no reason to stop. The 4th through 6 mile was great. I was warmed up, enjoying the run, and feeling good. For most of the run, I was doing 2 min run, 1 min walk intervals. At 54, and a newbie runner, I'm finding run walk intervals are the only way to do these long runs. I'm hoping that after this year's marathon, I will have enough of a base to start doing more runs without walk intervals. But for now, that's what I do. As I passed the house the 2nd time, I checked my Gatorade and saw that I didn't need to stop so on I went. Other than getting a bit cold and knowing it was mile 7, 8 and 9, it went well. Doing 3 mile loops gave me a sense is security (I was never too far from home) and I liked knowing just how far I had to go at each point.
It is now 2 days later and my legs are still a little sore but now too much. I opted for a 50 minute elliptical workout today and will run tomorrow. The 9 mile run has given me a great sense of accomplishment. Still a long way to a marathon, but I am pretty sure I can do it
I always try not to run by the house, just in case I experience a moment of weakness/extreme rationalization. It's amazing what you can talk yourself into as the miles wear on :)
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