A beautiful day for a run!

Today's run: Medium-Long Run of 10.7 miles at 8:46 pace.

I lucked out today. I took today off from work for a variety of reasons, and my reward was sunshine and a mid-day run in the park. With yesterday being the first time in the schedule that I run three days in a row (bumping up from 4 runs per week to 5), I wanted to make sure I took this run a little easier than I had been for my Medium-Long Runs. Thankfully, I have figured out some decent heart ranges for that, and I was able to stay in range for 94% of the run, averaging 161 bpm.


My route was one introduced to me by Amy, a great gal who helped me bridge the gap from when my longest runs were 8 miles or so to where I could do 11 or 12 miles. It was good slice of time last summer that helped me feel comfortable joining the K-Stars for Saturday runs for more than one reason:

1. When I first heard of the 9am K-Star runs, I thought 9am was way too early for me. Amy, however, liked to meet at 8am, so I started to realize the benefit of getting the long run done with and having the rest of the day available.
   
2. A typical K-Star run can be 10 miles.

A few great things about Golden Gate Park:

• American Bison. They were out in the sunshine and grazing in the paddock. I saw nine of them. Big, furry creatures.
• The views of Ocean Beach as you run up the Great Highway. Always a nice reminder that we live not only by the Bay, but by the ocean as well.
  
• The completely re-done De Young Museum is something you don't expect to see rising out of the trees.

My pace was fine, and the run felt okay. I was trying out a new water bottle (never having run with water, ever, before) and it was defective, leaking more on to my shirt than I got to drink. That aside, there were points in the run when I struggled, and times when I wondered if the dull, light pain in my quads was just the result of adding milage and starting to build strength in my legs.

The marathon is a long way away.