The beautiful weather had held through yesterday, and it was in the low 60s, sunny with some clouds, a bit of wind. A perfect day for a run.
I wore shorts, short-sleeved shirt, and my Asics, and ran my Waterfront loop. I felt good and maintained a steady, easy pace. I guesstimated it to be between a 10:00-10:30 pace, but I purposely didn’t look at my watch very much. In fact, I didn’t look at my watch until about 23 minutes into the run. I was timing it because I wanted to run for 40 minutes total. My right heel was sore but it loosened up after about the first mile or so. Other than that, it was a great run. My breathing was heavy but completely manageable.
While I was on the west side of the river, in Waterfront Park, I ran on the grass just to soften the impact on my feet, ankles and knees. The grass was a bit mushy still, full of water, but not too slick to run in with road trainers.
After I had completed the loop back to my starting point, my watch showed about 29 minutes, so I continued south along the river. The pathway continued on until it ended directly under where the Marquam Bridge crosses the Willamette, which by my watch was another 6 minutes. I turned and ran back to my original starting point again – which to my watch I reached in 39:54.59!
I hadn’t had to stop and walk at all the entire way. Even kept my pace at the turn-around point. I think that it’s easier for me to keep running when I’m not on a treadmill, which might seem counter-intuitive. However, I can make small adjustments in my pace when I’m on my own that help me maintain without have to break stride, whereas on the treadmill I’m locked into a specific pace and can’t seem to make those small adjustments as easily. That’s my current theory, at any rate.
Checking Google Earth for the additonal distance shows another full mile added to my regular loop, for a total miles of 3.87. Which makes my calculated pace to be 10:18 which is a great training pace right now.
I then walked back to the gym, where I did two circuits of strength training and then stretched out and showered off. Felt good. Tonight I’ll be doing speedwork. If it’s nice out I’ll be tempted to go running outside and might make an “adjustment” to the workout I do (maybe some hills?) but whatever I do will be a hard workout.
