Sunday, the first long run

Yesterday marked the day of my first ever long run; also known as the day I realized that it might be difficult to run ten miles at a time fifteen weeks from now.

As you may remember, I was thinking a few days ago that due to my incredible ability to run/jog more than 1.5 miles at once, perhaps I should increase this week's long run to 2.5 miles instead of the planned 2 miles. I decided against this in the end, since I'd already worked out the training schedule.

A poker friend of mine, A.M., - who has submitted a mail-in entry to the Cherry Blossom 10-miler but has not heard back yet - came over to my apartment at around 1pm so we could jog together. I mapped out a cute little route on gmap-pedometer.com. I strapped my new Nike + armband to my arm, and off we went.

Perhaps it was the hills (I'd been avoiding inclines all week), perhaps it was my feeble attempt at making conversation with A., perhaps it was the fact that I wasn't listening to any music (to facilitate said feeble conversation), perhaps it was some flaw in my training plan, but I was winded a little less than a mile and a half in to the route. Eventually, I had to resort to walking in between bouts of jogging...which I realize is the way some people train for these things, but obviously I'd been hoping I'd be capable of running the whole thing straight through.

Also, my Nike + sensor fell out of my shoe as I power-walked up a hill...I discovered it pretty soon afterwards, so that was fortunate. I guess packing tape is really not a reliable way of affixing that sensor to my Aasic, eh? I bought a lacelid on eBay, but the guy shipped it poorly and all I received was a ripped envelope...a new one supposedly will not be arriving until next week or the week after [along with GUITAR HERO III YEAH BABY!].

After the run, A. and I unwound in my apartment for a bit with some pear pie. As I have been eating nothing but pie for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and still was only 1/4 of the way through), I was grateful when A. ate two slices and consented to take a third one home with him.

I'm a bit worried by my inability to finish the shortest of my long runs. This has caused me to realize that it might actually be physically impossible for me to run 10 miles by April 6th... Still, I'm going to stick to my training schedule, and hope my body will catch up.