Today was my first long - ish run since the marathon. I met my friend Lily at her house and we headed down to the BWI airport trail to meet some other friends and a local running group. I love meeting new people when running and hearing about their lives, it makes the time fly by! Carolyn got a bit lost and ended up pulling in to the parking lot just as the group was leaving, and we didn't know the trail. This turned into Carolyn's warmup being slamming her car door and we sprinted to catch up. The first mile was 8:57 which was pretty quick considering I was planning on more like 10:30 - I didn't know how my legs would handle the distance, not to mention it was my first cold air long run this year. Luckily we brought the pace down after that and had fun. We met another girl doing the Columbia Irongirl that also doesn't even own a bike and she wants to train with us! I was really happy with how good my body felt doing that distance, it was a bit tough but overall I was able to chat and enjoy the run. I was tired afterwards, maybe more so than the last 10 miler before the marathon. The cold air was killing my asthma which didn't help. I forgot to restart my garmin after a Goo break and ended up missing at least a mile of the run. I got upset at first before I realized it didn't matter. I am not training for anything, this run was for fun, so who cared if I didn't know the exact distance or my pace at every single moment? I really want to enjoy running without worrying about the numbers until I begin training for a race again. We ended up doing about 10.5 miles and were really proud of ourselves. I think keeping up my fitness with an occasional long run will make beginning training again so much more pleasant.
On Friday, during our lunchtime discussion of weekend plans, I mentioned I was doing a "sort of long" run with a new group. My friend asked what a "sort of long" run meant - 5 miles? I told her more like ten, but we were taking it easy. She laughed at me for talking about my "easy 10 mile run", and I realized how CRAZY it actually does sound! I remember when that seemed like a completely insane idea that only super intense athletes would even attempt. I love how marathon training totally changes your mindset.
When I got home I had a salad, but that's seriously not doing it for me so I am about to enjoy some stuffed acorn squash and homemade rice pudding.
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