Long Run Groove

I'm getting back into the swing of the Saturday long runs with =PR= DTP. I love having a group of people to run with and a training plan to follow. Today's goal was 5 miles, with the last 2 building to race pace. I don't yet know what my half marathon race pace is; for Nike Women's Half Marathon, my pace was 12:45. I had a strong race with solid negative splits so I'm certainly looking to improve on that for the Philadelphia Half. Catherine thinks I can beat 2:30, which would mean at least 11:26 pace, I think.

Christina came out to run with us today which was awesome! I haven't run with her in a couple of months and really miss her. So I was running with four of my favorite women and the happy energy over the first mile was palpable as we chattered away. It made the 5 am alarm worth it! We stopped at the 2.5 mile mark to turn around, fuel, and take a "groupie" (my niece informs me a selfie with 3 or more people is a groupie. who knew?).

Christina, me, Marian, Catherine, Karen
(red blur in the back is a bicyclist!)

For the last half of the run I went out a bit faster with Catherine to work on building to race pace. My first three miles were very consistent: 12:25, 12:22, 12:25. The fourth mile was 11:39. Catherine encouraged me to take off for the fifth and keep building, and I ran 10:27. It felt really good. Catherine is gently brainwashing me into doing a marathon. She is very compelling...

After 5 miles I was happy to be done and cooling down. Catherine was just getting started, however, as she had 12 miles on her Richmond Marathon training schedule. She was looping back to our coolers, though, because she needed to test her blood sugar. Catherine has prediabetes, and it is one of those infuriatingly unfair situations (my words, not hers) where she does everything right in terms of lifestyle interventions - exercising and eating right, keeping her weight down - and it doesn't resolve on its own. Running long distances requires fuel - carbohydrate fuel - which can throw blood sugar out of whack. Catherine is diligently monitoring her blood sugar and keeping a nutrition log so she can learn about what works best. You can read about her early "lessons learned" in her fabulous blog: Live to Run, Run to Live.

Catherine's blood glucose testing kit
(which ironically isn't covered by insurance because it is preventive)

I felt energized by this morning's run and the wonderful women who ran with me. I feel lucky and grateful.