After writing about how I needed to push myself I decided that I WOULD push myself.  So on Saturday morning I decided to go six miles.  I have never done a training run to that distance.  In fact the only times I have gone that far are when doing Olympic Distance and ½ IM distance triathlons (and a misguided Thanksgiving Turkey Trot).  For one run a whole lot of stuff happened – some expected, some surprising and one “face palm, I should know better” moment.  Also found an adoring fan along the way:

The numbers for the day were impressive for me, top five in a lot of categories.  Distance was 6.37 miles and the total time was 1:24:57, so based on that alone it was the fastest 10k I have ever done.  Not all that surprising since most the time I am running a 10k it is coming right after a 40k bike ride.  The average pace for the run was 13:19 – I consider this a great pace even when I am only doing 3 miles.  Got a nice surprise, the Garmin Vivofit that I wear can never tell when I run (yup, I am that kind of slow) and simply says “you had an above average number of steps”.  This time it said that I had “jogged”!!  In your face technological overlord.  The really big shock was that mile four came in with a pace of 10:08 – no clue how that happened but a really good song or two on the head phones is my guess.  Of course that used up most of the gas in my tank since I didn’t eat anything all when I got up.  I had a couple of big glasses of water and carried a bottle on my belt but I blew off nutrition.  I am too old a bunny to do something that dumb. My times for the next two miles went to 14:37 and 14:57.  Someplace my favorite team in training coach woke thinking “I need to smack him upside the head”.  I forgot half the cardinal rule for training:  Hydration and Nutrition – one out of two is NOT good enough when doing distance. Even if it is just having a bar before heading out and carrying another one on me I cannot forget that again.  The most surprising part of it all is that NOTHING hurts today.  Of course I will change all that when I play hockey tonight but what the hell. Training is whatever I choose it to be, all I want is for my heart rate to go through the roof (or at least wake up).