A New Record - Just Barely

After a lot of deliberation, I decided yesterday to head out for the long run I had scheduled for last weekend. First, some background: The last long run I did was my best yet - fast and comfortable on a hilly course. Since then, though, virtually everything has felt like a struggle. Running last week in the city was particularly difficult given the return of warm and steamy weather. Figuring I might be overly run-down, I debated whether it might be to my advantage to skip this long run. On the plus side it would be a good break - mentally and physically. On the minus side, I felt I'd be opening a slippery slope to skipping future workouts and that I'd be putting a ton of pressure on myself to successfully complete the long run that's due two weeks from now (a 22-miler!). I also thought that I'd be making a bad situation worse if I haven't given myself enough recovery time along the way.

In the end I decided to postpone a day - which meant missing a short workout scheduled for one of the weekend days - and set out early yesterday morning. The weather has cooled a bit and the humidity is way down. I mapped out a route in the park that gave me about a tenth of a mile more than my longest run yet (hence, the new record): three loops of the park plus an extra lower loop. Total distance: 20.865 miles. I was really pleased to have finished the distance though the time was nothing special - 10:12 per mile, with the later miles much slower than the early ones.