Training – 5.14 Miles

When my alarm went off at 7:30 am yesterday morning, I lifted my head a bit and looked out the window.  The entire sky was dark gray; there was no way I was getting out of that bed and going running.  So I put my head back down on my pillow and fell back asleep.  I’m not sure if it rained after I fell back asleep, but when I woke up at 9:00 for work it was a beautiful sunny day and I felt really guilty for not getting up and running initially.  It did rain later in the day… well, rain is an understatement; we had a hail storm!  I don’t think I’ve witnessed one of those since I lived in Houston when I was five.  It didn’t even last long, maybe ten minutes.  Boston is a strange place.

The Harvard Bridge

Today I made sure that I got up with my first alarm (I always set multiple) so I could get in a good run and feel great all day.  I took my usual route to the river, but this time I took a left after I exited the overpass that leads there.  This path goes by a kids playground, a ton of benches and leads to The Harvard Bridge.  The Harvard Bridge is the longest crossing over The Charles River and it connects Boston to Cambridge by the way of Massachusetts Avenue.  There are pedestrian sidewalks on either side of the bridge that people use to run or walk on.  I love crossing this bridge; it is such a beautiful sight to see Boston across the glimmering water!

View of Boston from the other side of The Harvard Bridge

I had planned on going 2.5 miles and then turning around, but when I was just about there I noticed that I arrived at my turn around spot from Monday:  I had found a loop around the river!  Last time I was in Boston I had tried to find a loop, but I had taken a different path and ended up getting lost.  So today I continued on the path that I had taken on Monday, making sure I stopped at the water fountain.  I noticed that if I continue back to my apartment from this point that I would not make my 5 mile goal for today, and would come up about half a mile short, so I ran past my overpass and headed back to The Harvard Bridge.  There is a path past the bridge that I continued on a little bit until I turned around and headed back to my apartment.

I felt a lot better during this run than the Monday run.  My pace improved and I felt that I could have kept on going at the end.  I completed 5.14 miles in 46:46 giving me an average pace of 9:05.  I feel like that is a good training pace to maintain since I am trying to make my race pace 8:00 per mile.  Until next time!