Eight is enough

For the first long run I ever did, I was huffing and puffing and walking some to make it to eight miles. Eight miles seemed like a marathon at that moment and I remember rushing in to church to tell my friend Jess. For some reason, it just seemed in my mind once I did that number of miles -- any long run was possible.

Today I had six or seven on my calendar so I ate a bagel with marscarpone cheese and jelly and some coffee and ran.

Only I didn't run six, I finished two loops of our trail to make it eight. It seemed poetic somehow that my return to long run weekends after baby Ryder would be eight.

My goal was to work on cadence or quick feet, which is still somewhat of a hard technique for me. I just had beginner cadence around 130-180. Why worry about this? Running with a quicker cadence actually helps you run faster, conserve energy and keeps you from injuries.

I used the ismooth app for help and think I did the best when I didn't try to hit the 90-plus cadence and just worked on running tall and having quick feet. But, man, it feels weird. :)

The humidity at 65 percent-plus was hard as well. But my two goals were achieved 1.) run slow enough to recover after one day and 2.) finish strong. I felt great and def. think I can do a half marathon in the fall. And I finished with a pace of 10:08 for 8 miles--strangely enough. There was gas left in the tank at the end of my run so I am excited about my fall training.