10 Mile Run!

Today was the long run day.  I planned out a run out of the neighborhood and into town.  I thought the run would be a little more than 8 miles.  I turned out to be a 10 mile run.  I set out a little after 6 and the temperature was in the mid 70's.  The best morning for running I have had in a while.  I hadn't run 8 miles since I was on vacation in Idaho, where the temp was in the 50's in the morning.  My longest run since I had been back in the midwestern heat wave was a 6 mile run on the Little Blue Trail near Kansas City with my friend Amy.  So I set planning to run 8, then walk the rest of the way back if I wasn't home yet.  I felt great running today.  I planned to keep an easy pace between 11:20-11:40.  I ended up with an average pace of 11:19.  I was pleased with that since this run ended up being 10 miles and it was a hilly route.  The half marathon in St. Louis will be a hilly route, so it is good that I practice with hills as much as possible.  Everyone says if you can run 10 miles, you can run 13.1.  Now that I have completed a 10 mile run, I feel confident that I will be able to be prepared for 13.1 in October.  With the intense heat we have had, I have decided that I will have to take advantage of nicer morning like this one to complete a little beyond what the training says on a long run because there will most likely be other morning when the heat keeps me from completing the distance I would like to complete. 

I ate a breakfast of fiber one 80 calorie cereal before I ran, took water along on the run, and ate a fiber one bar when I got back from my run.  I felt like I had enough energy for the entire run.  Yesterday I made sure I had enough carbs in my meals throughout the day to prepare for a long run today.  I want to keep track of my eating around my long runs to see what provides me with the best performance.  I walked about a mile after my run to loosen up after running and did some light stretching when I finished. 

I'm having a little problem with getting a blister on my right middle toe on my long run days.  Could this be from the socks?  Did not have this problem before, but got a blister last weekend when I ran 6.  The blister was getting better, but feels a little irritated again after today's run.  Any suggestions?  Other than that, no pains so far.  When I first started running in the spring I had some leg, hip and foot pains, but throughout the summer everything has been great.  I'm hoping I continue to feel great as I up my running and other working out to prepare for the half marathon.  So excited to have completed 10 miles.  This is the farthest distance I have ever gone.  I never would have thought a year ago that I would be able to run 10 miles continually now.  It took me 1 hour and 53 minutes to run the 10 miles.  Now I'm looking forward to up the distance and continue to hopefully improve my pace.