Monday Evening Long Run

I am counting the hours until I’m done with work and get to head to Charlotte and start two glorious weeks of vacation. This month turned out to be really crazy, and I can’t wait to relax.
I was a royal slacker over the weekend and didn’t run. Last week was so busy that I really felt like I needed two days to recover! I couldn’t drag myself outside! But I knew I needed a long run, so yesterday I left work a little early and got in 3 laps of the Gilruth trail before it got completely dark. One lap is 2.9 miles, so my total was 8.7 miles. I covered the distance in 1:35 and change for an average of a sliver under 11:00 per mile.
All in all, this was a really good run. I felt a little anxious about it, since I haven’t run long in a while. I fell off the bandwagon after the Houston Half in October, and had only done one 10-miler in the weeks since that. I’m ok with it, and with the fact that I won’t be setting a new PR in the half in January. What I can do is run a solid race and finish in the 2:20-2:25 time frame.
The first loop didn’t go that well. My lower legs were tight and I was warm. I’d been cold all day, which led to my overdressing in a long sleeve shirt, capris, and gloves despite the fact that it was in the mid-50s. I was sweating pretty good by the end of the first mile. The gloves came off, but I was still warm. That got better once I got to the second half of the loop, where a brisk breeze was blowing right in my face. For the rest of the run, I was comfortable. The temperature was pretty much perfect.
After the first loop, I wasn’t really looking forward to two more, but about a mile into the second loop, my legs had finally loosened up and I really got into a groove, just crusing along and listening to my music. I took a short (less than 1 minute) walk break at each mile and a couple times I was actually surprised to find myself another mile down the road. The cruise control continued on the third loop, and while I started to feel tired in the last couple miles, I was able to keep up my pace and even speed up a little.
Each loop was faster than the previous loop — 32:02, 31:59, 31:11 — and my fastest miles were from 5-8.
I know that a good run is no reason for me to continue slacking off, but it did make me feel ok about my current condition.