New Distances

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Today marks new milestones for my two daughters.  They both took their long runs to new distances.  Their training has been going really good and so when their running schedules showed long runs of 5-7 for Ashlee and 6-9 for Payton I thought what better time than now to take them to the next level.  We also had a high school aged friend from the Tuesday Night Running Group running with us this morning that puts me to shame with distances and so we had the perfect opportunity.

The girls were not too happy when I woke them at 5:45, but this was kinda expected..... my body was also not too happy to be awoke at that time :)  We had planned to meet our friend at 6:15 so this gave us just enough time to get ready, hydrated, and out the door.  It was a cool 72 degrees, but really high humidity which was quickly evident as we took off.

We all took off together and I explained the plan.  We would start the run together and Payton and our friend would speed up as expected.  Ashlee and I would just keep a steady pace and plug away at 7 miles (our plan for the day)  the plan for Payton and her friend was 8 miles, this was 1 mile more then either Payton or Ashlee had ever run before in one go.  We were running the same course, but the 8 miles was just a 1/2 mile further before the turn around.  If all worked as planned, with their faster speed, we would all end up at home near the same time.

As we neared the 2 mile area they started to pull away so we all started settling into our pace, noticeably slower as we tackled the new distances.  Ashlee and my pacing was really good for a longer run, and we kept pretty steadily dropping 10 seconds each mile until mile number 6 when we jumped 10 seconds before dropping 40 seconds in the last mile to finish strong. splits

As we neared the last mile I started watching behind us for the other girls, but didn't see them.  Ashlee and I finished off the 7 with a big congratulations from me and then I turned around to go run the other two home.  I met them about 1/4 mile from home and turned around and finished strong with them as well.  Payton also ended with a big congratulations from me for the first completion of 8 miles.

For me, the distance ended at 7.4 miles.  The truth be told this is one of my longer runs in quite some time as well.  Since the marathon in November I have yet to get my long runs back where they need to be.  I will be working on that in the next few weeks as I start to ramp up my mileage and training.

I am a very proud father today, proud of both of my girls and how far they have come!

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