My First 8 mile Run

Rachel and I went to Phoenix last weekend to spend some time with family--and while I was super excited to spend time with them--I was equally excited to get to run my long run for the week while I was there.   Like most of you I have heard some great things about training in high elevation.  However, the more I was looking into it I found articles saying that it doesn't make "that much of a difference"  so I tried to ignore that, and my friends and I had decided to stick to that thought and if nothing else maybe the placebo effect would be miraculous :)   But deep down I was really hoping I would notice a huge difference.  It took me a long time of living up here (at 5600 feet) and jogging before I felt like I could run a mile without stopping so I could catch my breath.  I feel like I am in really good shape now but I still feel like I am struggling to get a really deep breath at times and running a 10:30 mile was no where near the "easy" pace our running plan noted. 

It was harder than I thought to fit the run in--since we had family stuff going on all day Saturday, so I opted to run first thing Sunday morning. For my Glendale friends who know the area, I ran from my parents' house, over the GIANT :) hill on 59th ave and then all the way to the 101, and back to their house. It was funny to run past Nicole's old house, and then Katie's... and even Brynn's knowing that I never even thought about getting to their houses on foot before. (I would ride a bike to Nicole's, but never Brynn and Katie's)

*just a side note--it is such a bummer they are all their "old" houses because their parents have all moved, so we don't even get to see each other when we are home visiting.

So how was it???

AMAZING!!!!

And that is no exaggeration.  I felt like I could breathe! And of course that makes a huge difference.  I not only hit the average 10:30 pace, but I ran the first 3 miles at under 10 min mile pace.    I had also heard that you notice the biggest difference when you sprint so I wanted to try an all out sprint for one mile and see how it felt compared to when I have done the same in Chinle.  I ran a 7:30 mile (and for the record, it was after running over Thunderbird Hill).  So my experiment was definitely a success and I am still going to try and hit the times on our training plan for each run, but just knowing that it will be easier when we get down to Phoenix gives me that much more confidence. 

And for my fellow half-marathon training friends--here are my splits and a few other details:

• 0.5 miles      4:34  (9:42 min/mile pace)  Warm up--felt like a nice easy pace
• 1.25 miles  12:14  (9:46 min/mile pace)  flat, still felt like an okay pace
• 1.3 miles    12:39  (9:43 min/mile pace)  (up and over the hill --had a steep uphill/also a downhill)
• 1 mile          7:31    all out sprint  (then after this mile is where I turned around)
• 1 mile        10:41    walked for a bit to recover, then jogged a bit before getting back to a run pace
• 1.35 miles 14:54   (11:10 min/mile pace -*fyi this side of the mountain was much steeper
• 1.25 miles 12:30   (10 min/mile pace)
• 0.5 miles     4:07   (8:40 min/mile pace--picked up the pace to finish strong)  (don't want to have to walk across the finish line so I always try to go fast at the end of a run)
• Total: 8.05 miles  79 min   avg pace 9:49 min/mile

(PS-this was an especially fun run because I am sure this is the longest I have ever run.  I ran track in high school and we did some pretty long runs--probably 1-2 runs a week that were 5-6 miles, so up to this point I felt like I was just getting back into the shape I was in back then, but now with every bit I run further I will be setting new Personal records on distance--which I find just an added bonus to all this training now that it is getting bard).