Long Slow Distance: 12 Miles

12 miles on the treadmill. Here's how I did it:

My gameplan was 59 minutes of This American Life and then I would listen to the original cast recording of Chicago.

I set the treadmill at 1% grade and 5.6 mph. This supposedly translates to 10:32 minute/mile which is a little faster than I should do my long runs, but, hey, it's the treadmill. I just want to get it over with as soon as possible.
The first 3 miles went as planned, then I took a potty break. When I came back, I peaked at the console of the guy running next to me. I had seen him at the gym several times this week. It said he'd gone over 7 miles already. "How far today?" I asked. "10 miles," was his reply. "Oh, I'll beat that. I'm going 12," I said. "Maybe I'll go 12 too," he said.

So, we chatted for a while. He's training for the Flying Pig. It will be his first marathon. I told him to check out the Hal Higdon website. He's a big fan of Dean Karnazes... his inspiration I guess.. Anyway, our chatting ate up 3 more miles of my run and next thing I knew I was at 6 miles and I still had another 25 minutes left of This American Life. All right!!!

After treadmill guy left I took another potty break and came back to find a new treadmill buddy on the treadmill to my left. We chatted about Jelly Belly sport beans for a while and I let him try some of mine. But then I went back to my podcast. When I finally finished my 9th mile, I turned up the heat. Mile 10 at 10:12, Mile 11 at 9:52, and Mile 12 at 9:01 (mostly). By that time, I was begging the gym gods to carry me to the finish. Roxie Hart was getting on my nerves and Billy Flynn was no help either. I walked about 1/2 mile to cool down and then did about 10 minutes of stretching.

Endurox an ice bath and Rolling Stone magazine were waiting for me at home. I hate those ice baths!

Next week, we should get temperatures back up in the 40s with some rain. I'll take it. The program I'm following has a 15k on the schedule and a mini taper. I think I will substitute the following week and try to make my March 25 15k a stepback week. I'm not sure how it will come out. I think I'll actually have to put pen to paper and see what I come up with. I just started back running seriously since my surgery and I don't think I'm really ready for a step back week yet. I'll have to check, but long run-wise, it might look something like this: 14, 15, 11, 17, 15k, 18, 20, 12...etc. back on track.

My order came from Triks. I now have my outfits for both the Pig 1/2 and Cleveland. I'm gonna be SMOKIN' HOT!!!

Miles run this week: 31
Miles run this year: 132.46