I still didn’t quite make it, but I got closer than I have before. I did, most certainly, cover 4 miles with no problem racking up the distance, but I was again not quite able to hold my speed, averaging 5.9 mph for this run. I allowed myself to warm up for about a half a mile, and now that I hear myself saying that, I realize that a half-mile probably wasn’t really enough, but anyhow, I was hitting my speed at about a half-mile, so I started my run at that point. For about the first mile and a half, everything was great and I was starting to think that today would be the day that I complete my long run, at speed.

However, long about 1.5 miles, I started remembering the deal I had made with myself that on long runs, I can stop for a brief rest every mile, to drink and let my heart rate come down a bit. So, at 1.5 miles, I did stop for a brief rest – I didn’t stop moving altogether, I was walking, but that’s at about half speed, so I just call it ‘stopping.’

I started back up and was very pleased to see that I was back up to speed rather quickly. I thought, at that point, that maybe I could change my deal with myself from stopping every mile to stopping every mile and a half. That would be around 3 miles and would leave me a mile to go – sounded perfect.

Yeah, sounded perfect until about another mile had gone by and I remembered that I do get to stop every MILE, not every MILE AND A HALF. So, I stopped again at 2.5 miles for a drink and a brief rest. When I began again, it was only a short time before I was back up to speed, and I think that’s a definite change as compared to my past long runs. Yeah!

I plugged along, maybe dropping below speed a time or two, I don’t really know because there were also power lines nearby and they seem to wickedly interfere with the GPS, but I think my overall speed was okay. I got to 3.5 miles, which was a mile past my last stop, but only .5 miles from the end of my run and I wanted to stop again, but I also knew it was only .5 miles until the end. I argued back and forth with myself for a while until I just decided to let myself stop and be happy enough that I had delayed my first stop by a half-mile. So, with only a half-mile to go, I did stop one last time before logging the last 4 tenths or so of a mile.

It turns out that the last stop was probably necessary because although I did get back up to speed in a reasonable amount of time, it wasn’t quite as fast as following the first two stops, and I did have to struggle somewhat to hold that speed for the duration of the run. Additionally, my heart rate stayed kinda high for the remainder of the run, so having given it that little break was probably a pretty good idea.

It’s been a couple of hours now since I ran and I have stretched and eaten and showered, and I’m feeling pretty good. I may take a nap in a little while, but I hope I can manage without one.