I had a meeting at the Starbucks on Indian Bend and 101 and started running right from there. It is nice and flat around there. I ran up and down Pima and Hayden, traversed through a golf course and ran along the canal for 14+ miles. The wind was blowing from the west. It is amazing how much difference a favoring wind can do to your speed. I don’t have actual stats on it, but I feel like 4MPH of wind equates to about 8 seconds per mile.
As I was finishing my first hour, I saw a gopher snake sunning on the sidewalk along the canal. I don’t run with my phone else I would have stopped to take a picture (the pic on this blog is a random image I found on the net). I was tempted to stop and just look at him for a few minutes but gopher snakes are common around here. The one I saw was about 6-feet long. It was my first sighting of the 2014 (although I’ve seen a few dead ones while biking). This one was a beauty!!
I have trained hard for the past few months. Other than a few weeks in November and December of last year, I have been at it constantly. Long runs, long bike rides and long swims have become routine. So much so, that running 14+ miles today seemed smooth!