Distance: 19.7 kilometers (12.23 miles)
Time: 113:33 minutes
Surface: asphalt/concrete
Weather Conditions: cool, overcast, 60s, morning run
Location: Miraflores/Barranco/Chorrillos, Lima, Peru
Comments: A tough one, for quite a few reasons.
I woke up tired today. Getting out the door was tougher than usual. I wasn't sore, per se, just unrested. Getting into the groove was rather difficult as a result.
Moreover, I did this run without my iPod Shuffle. The first long run without it. I need to concentrate more on my runs and, while the music helps get through the monotony of it, it can also be distracting. So, today, I didn't have anything to keep me on rhythm and from thinking about the difficulty of the endeavor.
But I made myself stick with it. And that is a victory, of sorts.
I was planning on running about 90 minutes and set a route in my mind to keep to (the usual loop around Playa Herriduras, along the seashore, up the stairs to the Malencon and back to Miraflores) and I thought it would be close. Between running the slower pace than expected and misjudging the distance, this came out to be almost a two-hour run. That might be a bit much for this point in my training.
Legs felt OK today but there was a recurrence of the tightness in the outside left quad. I'll stretch it well this afternoon and tomorrow.