Saturday was the first time I’ve run on Lee Drive since September 2, 2023, and it was also my longest training run since October 21, 2023. I have finished multiple half-marathons in that time. I haven’t covered more than 10 miles while training for a goal race.
From my house to Lansdowne Road via Lee Drive is about 11 miles.
I’m building my miles. This week, I reached 33 miles. The track meet on Tuesday, and running from Sheehy Toyota after dropping my car for maintenance helped. I’ve averaged 28 miles a week for a couple of months.
Since the Fourth of July, the dew point has remained above 72. Thursday morning, it was 75. All these evening thunderstorms are originating from high dew points, rather than a cold front moving through to break the humidity. At least, I don’t have to water my lawn to keep it green. I still see water droplets in the grass in the afternoon.
I negative split this long run. I have common time checkpoints on this route. Outbound they were 22:37, 26:09, and 23:13. Reversing those splits were 23:18. 24:56 and 22:01.
Lee Drive was still wet from the overnight rain and humidity, which reduced evaporation. The overcast and canopy on Lee Drive made it feel cooler than it was.
At the track meet on Tuesday, I decided to run only the 1600. While waiting for the race to start, I covered 4 miles and did a two-lap cooldown. I wasn’t feeling the effects of the low 90s temperature. Fortunately, we got the meet in before the evening storms started.
I ran reasonable splits of 2:18, 2:28, 2:27, and 2:13 for a 9:27. I didn’t create separate Garmin segments on the day. So, I don’t know how it measured the track. In the last lap, my heart rate maxed at 184 beats per minute.
We’ll have another track meet this week, and I’ll likely complete my Heritage Trail 10-mile route on Saturday. Looks like a break in the dew point early this week.
I’m no longer a slacker. I finished posting all of the Race Timing Unlimited race results on this site and my measured courses are current.