sweet sixteen

I ran 16 miles today! It's been a while since I've run that far.  Since Grandma's actually. Today's run went soooo much better than last week's long run. Let's see.....what was different?  Well,  I didn't eat a huge meal of oh so yummy rich food and booze it up the night before, and I also got more than 4 hours of sleep. I'm thinking that may have helped a bit. See? I ain't super stupid.

GarminElectra stayed with me for every mile. You never
know if she'll be interested enough to stick around for whole thing.

I ran the first 10 miles with the husband. He picked the route and let me go with him.  I tend to stick to the same routes and don't stray too far from what I'm familiar with (which equals boring but safe from the risk of getting lost); he's much more adventurous plus, he's not directionally challenged like I am.  It was a pretty clear cut route around a lake. It was a nice run.  It's funny how sympatico we can be - during mile five I felt the need to find a porta-potty.  PRONTO. As I was thinking that, the husband commented that he was feeling the same need. Isn't that cute how in sync we are?  And so romantic!!  And as luck would have it, we rounded a bend and - Ta Da!! - there was a porta-potty. I swear I heard angels sing when I saw it. We only got sort of lost once during mile 9 when we took a wrong turn in a neighborhood with all kinds of winding, confusing streets, but he got us back to the car safe and sound.

The place we parked the car was just over 6 miles from home. Perfect! So when we finished our 10, I walked the husband to his car and ran the remaining 6 miles home alone. Notice the final six miles are on a straight road. Keeping it simple (like me) and eliminating the risk of getting lost.  I ran with tunes for the first time in a long time (I usually only use my iPod when I'm on the TM) and I think it helped me to not have to listen to my labored breathing.  Remember when I  had a little tequila and downloaded a bunch of tunes from iTunes?  And remember my buyer's remorse and distain of "The Hustle"?  It turned out to be a good song to run to!! Who knew?? And turns out that my running app (iSmoothRun) pays attention to the songs that are played and the pace I run when each song plays.  So I learned that I ran fastest to "Push It" by Salt-n-Pepa.

Oh, and the ankle felt pretty good today!  I ran with my new inserts and they really seem to be helping. Whew!

If not for the wind, the weather would have been declared,"perfect for running," in my opinion at least. Dang, that headwind for the 6 miles home really sucked.  Other than that, the overcast sky and temps in the 40's...love it!

Here are today's splits.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	3:00:35.4	16.02	11:16
1	11:27.4	1.00	11:27
2	11:32.1	1.00	11:32
3	11:11.8	1.00	11:12
4	11:18.6	1.00	11:19
5	13:30.5	1.00	13:30
6	11:11.0	1.00	11:11
7	11:09.9	1.00	11:10
8	11:29.5	1.00	11:29
9	11:30.2	1.00	11:30
10	11:14.1	1.00	11:14
11	11:43.1	1.00	11:43
12	10:05.5	1.00	10:05
13	11:04.0	1.00	11:04
14	10:30.2	1.00	10:30
15	10:32.0	1.00	10:32
16	10:54.2	1.00	10:54
17	:11.6	0.02	10:33

Oh, and one other thing - When the husband and I got to the parking lot after the 10 miles, I REALLY needed to blow my nose.  No kleenex on either of us, of course. So the parking lot is in this little triangle between two very busy roads.... I went behind a shrub with my back to the road but facing cars in the lot and tried to discreetly blow snot rockets.  I looked up when I was all finished and in the car directly in front of me (visible through the shrub since the leaves aren't all out yet) were two people making out.  Big time.  At 11:00 in the morning.  Who does that??  Anywhoo, I don't know if they saw me or not, but I'm guessing not since they looked kind of.....busy.  Discreet snot rockets - mission accomplished!