New personal records

Today was supposed to be the 35 minute OHR run for Week 4.  Actually, that was supposed to be yesterday but a headache and rain made me postpone.  I'm sure part of it is knowing I've run for 35 minutes before so it didn't seem like much of a milestone.  Regardless, I was bound and determined to do it today.  I mapped out a route that would require me to maintain an 8:20 pace to finish in 35 minutes.  I did that so that I wouldn't run out of run before I ran out of time.

I made my way out into the frigid morning, 35 that felt like 26 according to weather.com.  I was tempted to run a second round on the hill loop, but since it had been almost a week and I mapped out my route with only 1 lap of it, I stuck to the planned route.  I didn't want to try to estimate my distance and screw things up. 

I realized during the hill loop that my 5 minute warnings weren't chiming.  I almost stopped to look at Interval Runner to make sure it was going, and those announcements help me with my speed, but I decided knowing my time wasn't important.  I was going for the distance no matter how long it took.  I kept running and decided to do the side street in my neighborhood before going to the main road.  It's basically flat which helps after that long climb in the first mile.

When I got to the main road, the wind hit hard.  I actually felt myself slow down.  I swear the wind changed when I got to my turn point and was in my face again back down the hill.  Then it turned again for the run back up.  Only had a tailwind on the last downhill portion before I went back into my subdivision.  I was feeling good by then and actually considered a third run up that hill, but I knew I was running short on time.  Made my way toward home, dodging the idiot woman who almost hit me at the 4 way stop.  She waited until I was running in front of her car to decide she should start moving.  Luckily, I always expect people to be idiots so I was able to dodge her.  I was tempted to get her license plate and hunt her down later, but it wasn't worth the effort.

Only pain I had was a side stitch that started around mile 2 and went away at some point.  I'm just glad I was able to run through it.  Shame no one knows what causes the pain. 

I'm pushing the next week of OHR to next week.  Wind sprints at the tennis court tomorrow morning and an attempt to do 5.25 or 6 miles on Saturday.