No music? Piece of cake

I did my long run yesterday: 7 miles. The goal was to go very slow and keep my heart rate down. I headed out the door and realized my iPod was dead! Ugh! Ordinarily, this would be a deal-breaker, but my plan says I have to run 7 miles and I didn't run all weekend, so I needed to get out there. So I reclassified this run as training for the ATM with no music.

Luckily, my neighbor was heading out at the exact same time so we ran together. She's a pro with several marathons under her belt. I knew that having a buddy to talk to would force me to keep my pace slow. She was worried she'd be too slow, but not at all. In fact, she was pushing a stroller with her 14-month old in it, she's currently 3 months pregnant, and our route is hilly. I would have never been able to keep up like she did! New inspiration.

We talked the entire time and it hardly felt like I was out there for an hour and half! It was a good run. I know I can do the ATM without music, but my pace will be very slow. Guess it will become a fun run for me instead of a race, which I'm fine with.

Lessons learned yesterday: running slow is physically hard. My feet hurt more, my back hurts more, and I am exhausted. I also started off a little dehydrated and didn't drink enough on the run, so I'm paying for it. Yesterday I was so tired I could hardly do anything. It was that 'so tired I can't even sleep' feeling. I've got some more energy today, but I'm still not normal. The big fat pill of a meal I ate last night to celebrate M's birthday didn't help.

Congrats Cathy! 10-minute miles are great! I know we'll have more spectators for the ATM. Maybe I'll be up to that pace by race day and we can chat the whole way!

Looking for new suggestions for the music--I still have to rely on a website to provide them so I may not be able to find what you want, but I'll try. If not, y'all are gonna' hear my entire running music library!