14 Miles

I was supposed to run 16 miles with Robert this morning, but started cramping around mile 14 and had to leave it at that.

I am actually quite pleased with the run, despite that. I had no idea how well I was going to run. I have only resumed running 4 weeks ago and was not sure if I was rushing to run long runs too quickly. I only ran 10 miles last week and the rule of thumb is to increase 10% from one week to the next. So going from 10 to 16 was a bit too ambitious. I am glad, however, how things went. I ran the 14 miles at around 7:06 per mile pace and this is pretty good for me at this stage of the training.

Those hills at Central Park killed me. This is the first time I have ran hills since November I think and it showed. I kept getting winded every time we got to run the hills, in special the great hill on the northwest side of the park. I guess not being used to hills plus running long distances contributed to the cramps this morning. But all's good and I am happy I was able to run at a decent pace.

It was a chilly 22F this morning during our run but sunny. Central Park is just gorgeous. All of the small lakes were frozen and it was great to see people ice skating, playing hockey and even playing soccer. I wished I had my camera with me.