I skipped church and went running instead. Today is chilly, with the pavement wet from overnight rain and a brisk wind driving cold missing-church-guilt into my face. That was somewhat ameliorated by the large number of other runners and cyclists also out this morning.
Today I decided to stretch the mileage, not pushing the pace too hard but working to build up distance. I made a long loop down the main thoroughfares and out into semi-rural horse properties, and then back through the local Sun City retirement community, covering 12 miles in just under an hour and 40 minutes.
Things went about as expected, with a few minor age-related aches and pains coming and going over the miles, but my pace felt comfortable, and even picked up a little as the miles went on and I warmed up. I ran faster than I anitcipated I could over that distance, averaging about an 8:20/mile pace and only slowing to cool down in the last mile. I had a few minutes of really good form at times during the run, but still couldn't quite figure out how to stay in that zone.
I hope to keep adding a little more distance to my long run every week, as I used to when building towards a marathon or longer distance race. But I think today's 12 miles was my longest run since December of 2006. Nice feeling to be making that kind of progress again.
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