Today's Run: 16 Miles of Music and Mind Games

Today's plan called for 16 miles, LSD.  Long slow distance is exactly what this one turned into.  I wanted to go faster, but I just don't have any speed right now.  My fastest mile was 10:18.  My slowest mile was #14, which I walked at 16:02.

After a few miles I realized I was not going to be fast so I altered my route.  If I can't be fast, I might as well build more endurance by running hills.  And that's when the mind games began...

Just before mile 7, I wanted to take a walk break.  I was wearing my iPod and decided I could walk after the current song ended.  Several songs, and almost a mile later, I was at a  local park and took a short walk and restroom break.

Then it really got going, the conversation between my mind and my legs:

"At the end of this song you can walk." 
"I wanna walk NOW."
"Please, pretty please, at the end of this song?" 
"How about we cut this one short?"

I was so tempted to turn this into a half marathon.  13.1 miles is a lot!  But, I need to get back to running LONG distances.  Eleven weeks from today I will be lining up for the Santa Barbara Marathon, not the Santa Barbara HALF Marathon.  It was time to pull out a little something from cycling great Jens Voigt:

Mind over matter (or legs) won this round.  I finished my 16 miles.  It wasn't pretty.  It wasn't fast.  But I did it.

16.03 miles in 3:09:15, 11:48 pace.

Ave HR 141
Max HR 159
Calories burned 1506