8 miles

My first long run of my training cycle was only 8 miles, and I had no fear. No fear, but major, major exhaustion. Working on drywall has been really tough on my bod these past three days, and my rest-day massage was canceled on Thursday. Bummer. I remember finishing up work on the house on my rest-day and wondering what happened to my rest-day. Anyway, I spent the 30 minutes before the long run eating (I somehow became starving between 12:30 and 4:30), laying on the couch, and hoping for some extra energy to actually motivate me to run my 8 miles. Somehow I managed to get in the car, drive to the haul road with E, and start off. My pace was noticeably pathetic, but I remembered everything I've been reading about long runs, and that is to take it slow, especially in the beginning. E informed me I was doing about 10min/mi. Felt ok, but my stomach was revolting in the form of side aches and acidic burps. I knew better than to try and eat before my run, even if I was starving.

All in all, I averaged 10:23 for the first four miles, and 9:01 on the way back. I felt a lot better at the turnaround, and knew I wanted to pick up the pace and finish in under 1:20. So total first split was 41:30 (approx.) and second split was 36:05. WOW. :-) Total time for 8.1 miles = 1:17:35.

Cross training today. Any ideas?