Ofercryingoutloud!

I ran 18 miles today! Woo hoo!

Friday off of work means a long run and a rest day on Saturday. So this morning I was up early, had a blueberry bagel, and was on the road by about 6:30 a.m. to run White Bear Lake (Minnesota). I decided to run White Bear because I have a 20 mile run there in mid-September. What I thought was going to be a lake run on paths and trails turned out to be about 2 miles of trail and 8+ miles on narrow county roads - not what I expected.

Once I finally found the lake and a place to park that was near part of the paved trail, I set out. But in addition to running conditions that I didn't expect, I didn't know where I was going and had to ask 2 locals 2 separate times if I was going the right way to circle the lake. As a result, I didn't enjoy the run or the sights like I typically do. I like to notice the things I run past like wildlife and plants.

The sum of it turned out ok - I did log my 18 miles, which was my goal. But the next time I need to run that long of a distance I'm going to go elsewhere. It wasn't that that White Bear Lake isn't beautiful - I passed some awesome houses that had small beach huts down by the water and the boat docks. It was very cute and would be a nice area for a shorter walk - but I don't like running 8+ miles on such challenging roads.

About my actual run - I felt pretty good almost the entire way. My right hamstring started to bother me again and would feel worse when I started to run after a walk break - but fairly quickly eased up as I ran for a few minutes. The walk breaks actually helped that because I took longer strides that stretched that muscle just enough. As my long runs get longer, I find periodic walk breaks quite beneficial to my stamina.