A lot of miles, and a rest day

Good morning!  Busy week here, with several evening meetings for work.  Since I'm taking a rest day this morning, I thought I would write a quick post about yesterday's long run.

I had 13.1 on the plan as my last long run before the Nashville Women's Half Marathon on September 28.  I've been running intervals (run 2:30/walk 1:00) for all of my long training runs since July's half in Chicago.  This was my strategy for my March half, which is also my current PR, so I decided to go back to this plan.

At work last week, I talked to a parent who I bumped into at a 5K in May.  I imagined she was much faster than me, as we passed about the 1/2 way mark and she was ahead of me.  In the last 1/2 mile, I was running and saw her walking just ahead of me.  I was feeling good and kept running, saying hello as I passed her, and then I heard her start running again, which encouraged me to give it everything I had, and I finished just seconds ahead of her (this is my current 5K PR, and I have her to thank for it! - nothing like a little friendly competition).  She told me afterward that she was mad that I beat her.

She is also running the Women's Half, and she's been downplaying her training.  Last week, she asked me if I was ready, and I said yes.  She said she's going to be very slow and I'll likely beat her again.  I told her that wasn't necessarily true, and she said that she was hoping to finish in 2:45.  I laughed and told her she would definitely beat me if she ran a 2:45, since my current PR is 2:49.  

But then I started thinking, what if I could run it in 2:45?  So yesterday for my long run, I decided to change my intervals to 3:1.  I felt good at first but I could tell I was running more, and I honestly don't think I was any faster overall than when I ran 2.5/1 last week for 12 miles.  So I'm thinking I'm going to stick with my normal intervals and just hope for the best and have fun.  If this parent beats me, I'm okay with that.  I really only need to compete with myself.

The other highlight of yesterday's run - I ran up on a couple of deer eating grass right on the side of the  path!

no zoom here - they were right there!

Here's another pic, with the sun glare it's a little hard to see, but you can see the path in this picture.

I'm taking a rest day today, since I'm experiencing some heel pain since yesterday's run.  (I noticed it a little on my 12 miler last week, but it was really there yesterday, and I could feel it when I woke up this morning.  Hubby said it sounds like the beginnings of PF, which he has had a lot of problems with, so I'm really going to try to take care of this so it doesn't get any worse, hence the rest day.

Have a great week!