Magical Unicorn Long Run

It's been awhile since I've had a magical unicorn long run. In fact, long runs are usually the least likely of my runs to be magical unicorn runs. Endurance has never been my strength in distance running. But I've been working really hard to change that fact. I had a really rough 7 miler last week on Thursday. I was tired, I was running solo, I hadn't thought to charge my iPod, it was too hot to carry my phone for music because I'd be so sweaty. I started running and my legs felt like they each weighed 200 lbs a piece. Uff da. I didn't have any more days left in the week to rearrange my schedule so I just slogged it out. And slog it out I did.

So fast forward to the weekend for my long run. I had 16 on the schedule which has become a pretty mild long-long run distance, but I was tackling at the end of a 45 mile week. Last fall I peaked at 45 miles and it had taken a toll on me, so I was nervous how 16 would feel with all the miles on my legs already.

I met up with Melissa to start and we set out. Before I knew it we were at mile 4. And then I looked down a few minutes later and we were at our 8 mile turn around. And before too long I did the math and realized she needed to hustle her booty to get to the start of the 5k she was racing at 8:30 a.m.

And even with Melissa gone, I just kept speeding up. My heart rate was nice and low (it was actually in a recovery zone for most of the run, oops!) so I focused on running with a strong form and continued to just ignore my watch, because it had worked for the first 9 miles.

This run just flew by. I got back to my car and checked my weather app, expecting it to tell me that the temps and humidity were super low and that's why I felt so strong and effortless during the run. Nope. 80 degrees with 80% humidity. Not what I'd call and cool morning. But I think doing all the mid-long runs after work when it's pushing 90 degrees is really helping my strength in the long run. Yay!