Are 7 Good Miles Better Than 10 Mediocre Ones?

Just my way of saying I didn't get to do 10 this weekend. It was poor planning on my part; Kristen was visiting and we'd originally planned for her to drive me 10 miles away from home and drop me off (not unlike what people do with kittens that they don't want), and I'd run home.

We had to scrap that plan because I stepped on one of Sascha's Bob the Builder diggers and I wasn't wearing shoes. (I also wasn't looking where I was going because I was intent on getting Sascha as far from Zoe as I could in the shortest time period possible - they were getting in each other's hair, so to speak.) I had at least one big bruise on the bottom of my foot.

So, being 10 miles from home could be very bad if it turned out I couldn't run. I worked out a route, but by the time I did that AND got dressed AND found a running hat AND geared up with my Garmin and HRM AND came back to get a bottle of water, I didn't have time to run 10 miles. That's because I was taking Sascha to the symphony at 3 pm. (Her first taste of classical music and my first orchestra concert since about the age of 7. Remind me in the future NOT to get front-row seats, because mostly what you see is the conductor's a$$.)

Anyway, to make a long story even longer, I did 7 good miles with no foot pain (thanks to thick socks and ibuprofen)! Here are the stats:

Mile 1: 11:25, 140 bpm
Mile 2: 11:37, 149 bpm
Mile 3: 11:40, 152 bpm
Mile 4: 12:25, 157 bpm (this mile had two HUGE hills in it)
Mile 5: 11:29, 152 bpm
Mile 6: 11:44, 155 bpm
Mile 7: 11:08, 161 bpm

Totals:
7 miles
81:35
11:38 pace
9:16 max pace

152 bpm
171 max bpm

1,427 calories

I'm pretty happy with that - 152 is almost exactly 75% of my max heart rate (my resting HR is about 64-65 bpm - I have been measuring it at night when putting Zoe to bed). That is the low end of what I should be doing for long runs, but I'll take it.

I'm also happy I got to see those little red lizards on the road near Goose Pond. I have no idea what they are. They kind of remind me of gummy candy. They're not quite *that* red, though.

In other news, I *just* figured out how to light up the background of my Garmin display, after owning it for more than a year. Read the manual? What manual?

Next week is heavy - four timed miles, an 8-mile tempo run and a 12-mile long run. I have no clue when I'm going to do all this, since I am going to Hartford and Boston this week and they extended my already-too-long-day-long class by an hour. The nerve!

I'll figure it out. I may be doing those 12 miles on Mother's Day...