Tuesday was my long run day, I guess my most important run of the week. I did a route roulette and it ended up sending me down a pretty nice highway towards Tufts University Veterinarian school. So alot of the surrounding area is big open fields that they use for the horses or dogs or other animals that happen to be visiting.
Along the way, part of the road goes parallel to the railroad where the Commuter rail runs into Boston. I got quite the startle when during the run an Amtrak train was going down the track and decided to blow its horn right next to me. Made me jump a good bit! After a bit, the path I took winded up finding its way to an industrial area that was not quite as pleasant but it was a pretty fun run and new scenery for me at least!
I had a pretty good climb during the middle of the run, I think it was around 400ft total for the entire run, but the big climb part was about 2 miles all up hill. It was followed with a pretty nice sprint down hill where the grade was so steep that I had little choice but to full sprint down the hill. Overall it was a very beautiful day though, nice and sunny with a cool breeze so it made the run very enjoyable.
I realized near the end of the run though that I had made some pretty good time without really trying to do so. With just a mile left, I knew that I was within 10 minutes of my best 10k time, so pushed myself a little in mile 6 to make it close. I wasn't sure if I had beat it or not until I uploaded my data from my run....
I set a new personal record for my best 10k time, beating my old record by 24 seconds. Still a pretty far distance away from my goal of trying to get a sub-1 hour 10k though, but I still have 7-8 weeks left before the 10k race to try to get there. I am not sure that I will as that is a pretty big gap, but it gives me something to work for!
One of the complications that I have with my long run days is after my run, I get pretty substantially hungry. My current calorie budget is around 2500 calories per day, which would give me a goal of losing 1/2 a pound per week. Nothing earth shattering, but I am not trying to diet but instead I am trying to just live healthier (both diet and exercise).
I don't believe that calories burned off by exercise is a direct correlation to calories you can eat in extra as many fitness apps suggest, but it does represent the large amount of food that I burn off that I need to replace. Seriously shorting my calories is probably just as bad for my health as taking in too many calories is. On Tuesday I ended up eating out twice (Subway for lunch and a mexican restaurant for dinner) as well as had a snack of various fruit in the afternoon, and I still came a mile short on my calories for the day.
I guess figuring out my Tuesday diet is going to take a little more work on my part.