I set out this morning with the goal of running farther and more slowly than I did on Monday, and failed at both. Today's route was supposed to be essentially the same as Monday's until I got to Beck Street, where I would increase the length of my Rose Park loop, adding a couple of miles to to the route's overall length. I also planned to run at a more leisurely pace than Monday's 7:42 per mile, because the point of these long runs is to build endurance, not speed. But I ran into the same problem that I did earlier this week; specifically, when I'm on flat or slightly descending roads I have a hard time keeping the pace under a 7:30 mile, even though I should be going slower. Anyways, I felt good today and I should have been able to finish with around 20 miles, but as I came back up to the capitol I experienced what I can best describe as gastrointestinal distress. Yikes. Instead of pushing my luck (and risking a pair of soiled shorts), I ran straight home down B Street instead of looping east on 11th Avenue to Virginia. Even with my GI adventures, I ended up with 17 miles in 2:10.
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