Those Hilly Courses are Paying Off

After a relaxing evening and a rejuvenating 10 hours of sleep last night, I was feeling good this morning. I had a big bowl of cereal and plotted out my run for the day on MapMyRun. I orginally planned a 6 mile out-and-back run but noticed that they was another landmark just 1/2 mile beyond my turnaround. I figured that if I was feeling good, I'd go ahead and push for 7. I grabbed my iPod loaded with some Podrunner tunes and drove to the bike path. As soon as I started my run, I noticed that my pace was a little faster than usual. My breathing was still near "conversational" so I figured I'd just keep it up for as long as I felt okay. Once I got to my 3 mile turn around, I could see the 3.5 mile turn around up ahead. I figured, "What's one more mile?!" I figured too that if I was really tired towards the end, I could always just stop early and still get my planned 6 in. Anyhow, I was feeling pretty good the first 4-5 miles, but then I started to get tired. Normally I have some Sports Beans around then, but I figured those weren't really needed since I was only going a few more miles. So instead, I focused on my form and on maintaining the moderate pace I set, and I pushed through to finish a 7.1 mile run! Woo hoo! This was my longest run since my 10-mile race a few weeks ago. While my knees did hurt occasionally, it was more of a discomfort -- Certainly nothing that would stop my in my tracks. I still am a little annoyed that the pain/discomfort is there though. Will it ever go away?! Anyway, I feel pretty pumped to have pushed out 7 this week. I ran it at a pretty good pace for me too, 9:06 min/mile! The bike path course I ran today is super flat and I think the runs I've had recently at the hilly park I've been going to have made me stronger. Cool! I think I will hit a few more hilly courses before next Saturday. I plotted next Sunday's race course on MapMyRun and the first two miles are all uphill. Yikes! Oh well, what goes up, must come down, right?! I should have a pretty fast finish. At least, let's hope!