11 miles on Independence Day

Yesterday was the Birthday of  The United States of America.

I celebrated by sleeping in, and then going for an 11 mile walk. It was gorgeous out. A little cloudy, and a little sprinkly, but mostly cool and calm and pretty. Things were blooming, birds were flying, mosquitoes were biting. It was nice.

There are a bunch of birds zipping around in this picture. Sorry if you can’t see them. They were lightening fast.

It was a pretty slow set of 11 miles, but I did the second half much faster, which was encouraging. I didn’t time my splits, but the first 5.5 miles took about 2 hours (I was walking pretty slow) and the second 5.5 miles took 1:28ish. I ran at each of the half mile posts “for as long as I could”. The idea was to give myself time to recover until the next post, which I think I did beautifully. There was a couple of those times when I really felt like I was going fast. And it didn’t hurt, so that was exciting.

For the first time, I really felt like I could accomplish my goal of running the Chicago Marathon this October.

Knowing that I could sustain movement for 3 and a half hours was great. Sure it was slower than my most recent half. but these miles were supposed to be slow. As long as I don’t keep skipping my “long runs” I should be fine. I recently figured out that 20 miles out and back from my house would take me through bear country into Kincaid Park. So that’s my goal for September; stay tuned!

But which temperature? For how long? Do I need to cover it? Whats going on here? How am I supposed to keep it refrigerated and cook it at the same time! I don’t understand, man!

After I came home, I made a victory meal of Meatloaf and super healthy cookies. I subbed whole wheat flour for the white/spelt/or bob’s GF, and added a scoop of Sun Warrior Raw Vanilla protein. Also, instead of chocolate chips, I just used cocoa powder, cacao nibs, and coconut flakes. I may or may not make this recipe three or four times a week.

They’re pretty damn good. Unfortunately I have yet to snag a picture of them… I eat them so fast! Also, they have never come out looking like the ones in her pictures. But I’m also pretty terrible at measuring things. (No, I’m not implying one has anything to do with the other. Swearsies.)

I had 4 miles on the agenda today, but skipped them since I wanted a day to recover from the 11 miles. I felt surprisingly good today, considering, and even when faced with these stairs, climbed them with almost no issue.

Stairs of d00m!!!111!1!wtfbbq

Yup, all 154 of them. I call them the stairs of doom. Sometimes to homeless drink or sleep on them. Or smoke illegal drugs. Or stab people.

So thats exciting.

This weekend I have another long run scheduled, and I’m not sure if I should do it or not since I just put in 11 miles yesterday.  Perhaps I’ll try to ride my bike that distance instead. Less impact, plus great cross training, and I can see a little bit further of the trail I’m going to become very closely acquainted with this summer.

Decision made. Thanks, folks!

What are your exercise plans this weekend?