9.5 Miles on the Treadmill

Saturday morning I ran 9.5 miles on the treadmill.  I've always been amazed to read about others who run double digits on the TM, I have just never had the mental discipline or patience to try to run long on the TM.  This weekend I didn't really have a choice if I wanted to get a long run in. 

It was actually kind of fun once I got in my groove.  I could people watch and listen to my music which really made the time go by.  It was kind of interesting to see who else was running on the TMs for over an hour - there was at least 1 man and 1 woman who were both there as long as I was.  I notice a lot of people in the gym with their Ironman gear, so I suspect they are getting some good Ironman training in. 

As for me, the Fleet Feet schedule called for 10 miles, so I was just hoping to get as close to that as possible.  The TM automatically shifted to "cool down" mode after 30 minutes, and I didn't know how to override that feature, so every 30 minutes I took a short walk break to reset it and bring it back up to speed.  At the end of the first 30 minutes, I was really doubting whether I could keep going, but I felt much better around mile 5 and at that point I could really just zone out, which seemed to make it all go by faster.  My last 30 minutes I was running at a 9:13 pace, which I was pleased with, since I spent the first 30 minutes running closer to a 10 minute pace.  Altogether, it was a good workout for me and today I feel very good - not sore and I pulled my little man in his bike trailer for a good 45 minute ride today, so hopefully this bodes well for the half marathon next weekend!