Another Long Run/Walk in the Books

Yesterday, I had another 8 miler on tap, after last week's "rest" week. I hoped to hit something close to an 18:00 average pace, so I returned to the relatively flat and shady American Tobacco Trail's White Oak trailhead for the second time. On this outing, I decided to turn right instead of left, and off I went. I started out hitting my target pace, but perhaps it was a little too fast, especially Mile 2. I started out the run/walk with music in my ears, and that might've had something to do with the faster pace at the start too.

I had the usual pain in my right toes, but it came a little later yesterday. Perhaps it was because I ran into a couple of fun acquaintances from the Galloway running group and stopped to chat for a couple of minutes, giving me a chance to wiggle the toes a bit before resuming the run. I ran out of water in the last mile, which tells me I need to take more next weekend, even if it means making sure I pass my car while I'm out.

I ended up finishing 8 miles in 2:26:48, about the same pace as my last 8 (okay, 8.18) miler two weeks ago, I was a little discouraged by that, hoping I'd see some pace improvement this week. I remembered a recent comment by Johann, though, and decided to compare similar workouts for some clues. I was surprised to see that yesterday's run/walk had an additional 1100 feet of ascent over the last 8+ miler that I did on the same trail, but in the opposite direction. Hmmm, a little extra "hill work" was good for me, I think, even if I didn't speed up for it.

I was also pretty pleased by the three sub-18:00 mile splits below, the most I've had in some time. Although my coach hasn't given me any pace goals for my long runs yet, I'm eager to see some improvement without overdoing it.

1)17:57
2)17:19
3)18:22
4)18:27
5)17:53
6)19:00
7)19:11
8)18:35

I found the photo above on Flickr of the White Oake section of the American Tobacco Trail where I've been running, though taken in the fall, I think. It's such a nice place to run! Just wish it didn't take me 30 minutes to get to this particular trailhead.