15 miles ~ I'm back!!

Home sweet home...

As much as I love going on vacation with my family and getting to spend time in new places, it felt good to be able to run in a familiar place this morning where I could relax and just enjoy the run.  I did 15 miles because I wasn't able to do a long run on Saturday, as my schedule dictated.  I was a little worried about coming home and jumping right back into things with such a long run, since my workouts while we were gone were, well...not much, to be honest.  We were camping the whole time, which I figure burns more calories than most regular days at home because you're up doing stuff all the time.

Last Monday I did do a 4.5 mile run at the first campground we stayed at because it was a little less rustic and had a mile long stretch of paved road where I just did laps.  I didn't do any running the rest of the week, although we did several small hikes (1-3 miles), and two longer hikes (5-6 miles each).

This morning I set the alarm to wake up at 5am and I was out the door by 5:45.  Surprisingly, I felt great.  I guess a little break from running helped my body get some needed recovery time.  I did the whole 15 miles with no walking breaks, and finished in 2 hours and 52 minutes, averaging 11:28 min/mile.  My foot, which hasn't bothered me for the past few days, didn't start to hurt until a few miles into my run, but it wasn't as bad as it has been, so I'm hoping it will work itself out - really, I will avoid going to the doctor until it becomes truly unavoidable.  After my run I did 15 minutes of Yoga stretching and now, starting tomorrow, I will be back on track with my regular schedule, which means a second long run on Saturday, so hopefully I will continue to feel strong.