Saturday - 18+ miles

I set my alarm for 5:15 when I went to bed last night and I woke up a few minutes before 5:00 this morning and looked at the clock and decided to go back to sleep for 15 - 20 minutes until the alarm went off. Next think I know I'm waking up and looking at the clock again and it is after 6:00. Turns out I accidentally set it for 5:15 pm instead of am. Since it was already after 6:00 and I missed the start of the run I decided to go back to sleep and run a little later in the morning since I'd be running by myself anyway.

I left about 8:45 and started the run. I saw Sean out at the high school cross country meet on the bayou near Memorial and Shepherd and he asked why I didn't get up and run with the group like I should. He told me there were still fluids at one of the stops on the route so I ran down the route the to Hermann Park and Rice University. When I started the run the temperature was in the low 60's and it was sunny out and felt really nice out. This was the first long run in a while I've actually worn a shirt for. There were several drinking fountains around Hermann Park and Rice so I didn't have any problems getting enough fluid. I felt pretty good and ended up averaging about 6:48 pace for the run. I think when I was trying to cross through the roundabout and get from Hermann Park back to Montrose on the way home I must have thought I stopped my garmin and then when I hit the button to start it I was really stopping it. I didn't discover it until I was back just past Stanford and Westheimer. According to the map it is over a mile and when I finished the run my Garmin said 17.5, but I think I ran somewhere around 18.5 or a little more. The 7:29 mile that was way out of place was high because the clock was probably running for 45 - 50 seconds while I wasn't going anywhere. Based on the mile times around it I'm guessing I ran that mile in the mid 6:30's.

My splits were 7:23, 6:59, 7:23, 6:52, 6:51, 6:55, 7:00, 6:52, 6:56, 6:57, 6:48, 6:39, 7:29*, 6:31, 6:27, 6:36, 6:08, 6:05 (last 1/2 mile pace)

One disadvantage of running later in the morning is there is more traffic out so I ended up have to stop briefly numerous times to cross a busy road and usually at 6:00 am there isn't any traffic out to slow you down. My legs felt pretty good for having run 18 miles. I think the cooler weather contributed a lot to that because I didn't sweat near as much as usual and sometimes on the warm days my legs start cramping after I finish the run but they felt fine today. I hope we have good weather for the 1/2 marathon next weekend.