Miles In the Bank

I had to fit my long run in on Friday this week. Fortunately the weather cooperated with bright sunshine and not the rain/snow mix predicted. It was cold, but I have cold weather gear. I planned to run 22 miles in a sort of fat ass fashion, coming in after 6 or so miles to refuel and change clothes (I do that when it's cold so that I don't get a chill going back out in sweaty clothes). I also planned on alternating between road and off-road just to speed up the process.

My first leg on the road was fairly uneventful, but I stretched it out to seven miles. Came in for Gatorade, pretzels, pbj sandwich pieces, and Honey Stinger Chews. I did change into slightly less heavy clothes and got back out to my off-road leg. I ran the parts of our fields that weren't saturated and then headed to the Packard's farm to do the same there (it's just a mile up King Rd). I figured since I ran more on my road leg than planned, I would do the same on the off-road portion and then I'd just have one leg left. By the time I got back to the house, I'd gone 9.26 more. More of the same refreshments with some Coke thrown in. I made the command decision to stick with the fields even though I'd be done faster on the roads; After all, Pineland is not paved!

I was rewarded right off with a beautiful deer bounding away from me with its white flag a flyin'! Then I was again surprised to hear my first frog of the season in one of the little bogs out back. I hope it dug into the mud last night! I pushed through the last miles, slowing down a good deal, but still managing to keep my pace to a 10 min/mile average over the entire 22.

Today I ran a slow 10 in the fields. I thought I was headed down to pick up Ryan after, but he's gonna take the bus home tomorrow. Yay! My body doesn't feel like being in a car all those hours.