Runner's High...It Does Exist!!

OK, I don’t normally write about a typical workout, but yesterday was an exception and I wish I had been able to write it while I still had the “high” but unfortunately my computer at home was just being too slow, so I had to wait till today.

So with the weekend tied up being out of town Saturday and traveling back Sunday I knew there wouldn’t be time for a long run, but I had planned ahead for this week and it is a cut back week and I only cared about getting a 10-12 miler in for a long run. Yesterday I got up and decided instead of strength and running yesterday, I’d sleep a bit more and get a little bit faster run in the morning before the long easy in the afternoon…so I did 5 miles a 8:30 pace on the treadmill.

After work I was tired, I wanted a nap but wanted to go to bed early, I compromised and laid down for 15 minutes with my alarm set, it went off and I forced myself to dress, tights, light weight long sleeved wicking and Chicago jacket, MP3, Garmin (socks and shoes of course) and out the door. It was about 55 degrees, cloudy, some wind and a bit humid as there were storms coming in supposedly, it was sprinkling a little when I left so I put MP3 in my pocked and headed out…easy 9:15 or so pace for the first few miles, and worked on holding it back, up some hills, down some, one of my typical routes with a few changes…it was feeling really good…I got to the point where I was tacking on so I could do a shorter loop on the return, hit a park I run through where there were some teens out running and one kept screaming, loudly, very annoying, at least her friends were smart enough to tell her to stop as she was annoying others (smart friends) but thankfully I got away from them right away and was just enjoying the run. I hit mile 6 and a little into it, I ran out of the playlist I was listening to, stopped and walked long enough to change to some music and then was on again, I hit mile 7 in 8:50 even with that stop, mile 8 came in at 8:37, and that had a decent uphill on it (although some downhill too that evens it out) and mile 9 was an 8:05…what??? So even though this was to be an easy long run, typically shooting for a 9:30-9:45 pace, I just couldn’t hold back, it was feeling too good and I could've gone on forever and ever, one of those types of runs, and you don't get them that often, so I let it all out in the last mile and came in at 7:37!!! Wow, after 9 miles, with the last 4 getting progressively faster...Overall pace was 8:50…not too shabby, particularly with a good 17 miler on Sunday and then a good 5 miler in the morning as well. Oh, and did I mention the ran had come back a bit more regular in the last couple of miles...so I was running 2-2 1/2 miles in a light sprinkle, 55 or so plus humidity making it warmer...it was awesome!!

So what caused that run?? I’d really like to know as my eating wasn’t great yesterday, maybe it was Catholic guilt hitting me, I was horrible yesterday, I ate a piece of cake (co-workers birthday, cake from Byerly’s which has just the best cakes and no willpower when tempted that hard) even though I gave it up for lent…hmm…cake in the afternoon a little go lean crunch before leaving work, pasta for lunch…all added up to great fuel I guess!!

Oh, and final icing...weighed in today (I weigh on Monday and Friday to keep myself good over the weekend!!) and the scale finally moved!! I'm down 1.5 pounds!!)