I'm confused.

Well, I don't know what happened today, but I ended up running my long run way too fast. I felt great, and it didn't completely kill me (well, maybe I should wait until tomorrow to say that), but I am still perplexed. I even added on about a mile at the end, after looking at my watch and thinking there was no way I'd be close to 17, I must have turned around too early, better run until I hit 2:30.

The first few miles I definitely felt sluggish, and I know I was just under a 10-minute-mile through mile 4. I then left the park for the west side, where I'm not as familiar with mile markers to keep track of myself. I had to guess where my turn around point was because there were no street signs marking 170th St. nearby. Turns out, after having mapped it, it was almost exactly 8.5 miles. I hit that split in 1:24, and the split on the way home (including the extra mile) was 1:04. I knew I had felt better and was concentrating on keeping a relaxed stride in a concerted to pick up the pace a little bit to get to the low 9s, but this was ridiculous. I stared at the online map I made, thinking there must be some mistake, but it would be impossible for me to have accidentally added an entire mile someplace!

Next week is a recovery week, so I will take it easy. At least there is no workout scheduled for Tuesday because I'd be afraid this run would kill it. I'm not entirely sure how I could have prevented this, other than running somewhere where I can keep better track of my splits. I felt the same as on my other long runs, but was just a minute faster? That difference seems so drastic.

You know, now that this is in writing, I realize this has to be a mistake. There's no way I could have run the second 9 miles in 1:04. That would be, like, racing. I must have stopped my watch at some point and not noticed. I'm trying to remember when I stopped my watch for traffic lights or something to think if there'd be something about 10-20 minutes apart. That makes so much more sense.

Well, shit, now I have no idea how fast I ran that run. Bah. I'm going to say 2:42, because that puts me at 9 min/mile, and that would feel about right, I think. But, who knows.