Long Run Thursday: Disorganization and Poor Planning Pays Off

Plan: I did not set heart rate alarms, but 'keep an eye on the heart rate' should still happen.  See if I can get up that big hill at the end.

Route: Start at French Park visitor center.  Run east past Hazelden and then follow the path around the lake.  Turn around at the corner of Medicine Lake Blvd and Northwest Blvd and run back the other way.

Weather: Weather was around 40* and winds out of the southeast, 10mph or so. This is where the disorganization and poor planning starts, because I'd heard "oh there's a slight chance of rain, blah blah" and didn't look.  Yeah, it rained miles 2-8, and then again right at the end of the run.  Not terribly hard rain, but rain and it was 40*.  

Wardrobe:  Running pants (not tights), compression socks, long sleeve shirt and quarter zip.  Orange visor on my head and Altras on my feet.  (And if you look closely, you can see raindrops on my shoulders.)

Execution: I am shocked and amazed on many levels.  Rain: I ran through the rain in the cold. Couldn't have predicted that ahead of time.  Hills: I made the hills bigger in my head than they were in real life.  I made it up and down all of them fine, including that last beast.  Heart rate: I'm really proud of the heart rate.  I kept it low 'till the end.  Then I decided I needed to be able to run down hills fast at the end of a run because Flying Pig Training.

Nutrition: I had bacon and eggs for breakfast and I did not have an upset stomach for this run.  Win!  For lunch I had museli and one of these bars.  I carried water and gummy chews.  I had a chew every mile or so.  Except when I was climbing, I really had no desire to eat.

Bonus: I'm so proud of myself for staying out there in the cold and the rain and not giving up.  And I'm actually really happy with these paces.  For a long run with hills and a low heart rate, that's an improvement over some recent efforts.