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!

Magical Unicorn Long Run

I should've know that when I had the worst run ever, followed by hash tagged messages in the snow, that a magical unicorn run was just around the corner. That's just the way it works. When you have what feels like, the worst run of your liiiiiife, 9 times out of 10 the perfect one is just around the corner.

But honestly, it's been awhile since I've had a legit shitty run, so I forgot about this magical equation.

Then SUNDAY. We had our 12 mile long run. I woke up and could not get myself out of bed to get the run done before work, so I texted the BRF to let her know she could go without me, or I could plan a route after work. Without skipping a beat, she agreed to run after work.

THANK GOD.

I planned out a route and warned her that it looped by my work twice, and to mentally prepare for that. I know that for me, when a long run is feeling rough, or I'm just getting tired, I could easily be tempted to call it a day on the first loop around. When in actuality we went by my work place 3x. Oops.

But the miles flew by. I couldn't believe how quickly our watches were beeping another mile complete. When we finished 12 miles, I seriously contemplated doing another 3 because it felt so good.

Maybe I'll turn into a long run lover just yet.