Not a perfect 10

No, but I put 10 miles in the books today, nonetheless. For my first 10-mile run ever, I guess it wasn't too bad, though I know I'll improve as I get used to longer distances. I also did the whole thing on a treadmill, which wasn't exactly a blast.

The longest I ever ran during high school cross country season was eight miles, if I'm remembering correctly. This past spring, when I was in Florida for spring training, I logged a nine-mile run one night. This winter, eight miles was the longest I had run, and that was last week.

This week I was down for 10 as my long run on Saturday, and I wasn't sure if I'd get it in -- mainly because I was at baseball's Winter Meetings in Nashville from Sunday-Friday. During the meetings, a lot of the time is spent standing around, writing, schmoozing, boozing and grubbing it up.

My schedule was supposed to be 3 miles on Monday, rest, 5 miles on Wednesday, 3 on Thursday, rest and then 10 on Saturday. I got the first run in no problem in the morning, but morning runs were hard to get in from there on out. Wednesday I didn't get the run in, but I did 10 miles on a bike.

My schedule got out of whack because of a late-night out on Wednesday. No problem, I adjusted my sked and got 5 miles in on Thursday night and 3 miles (done in 21:18) after I got back to Toronto on Friday night. I was proud of myself on Tuesday. I declined beers out at dinner, stuck with pop, and made it to the gym before I went to bed. I took some abuse for not drinking, but I can handle it.

So, I was worried about the 10 miles I had to get in today, considering I didn't have a recovery day the day before. I got 5 miles in no problem and then started hurting somewhat (mainly my feet, which are getting hit with some wear and tear). But I stopped for a couple water breaks between miles 5 and 10 and was able to do the final mile in around 7:30. So I had some gas leftover at the end.

I finished in 85 minutes flat, so 8:30 on average for each mile. For a marathon, that pace would come to about 3 hours and 42 minutes I think. So, I'm confident I can complete the marathon in October in under 4 hours. If I could break 3:30, I'd be really pleased, but we'll see if that's too lofty a goal. I have plenty of time to work on building up my endurance and shaving off the minutes.

After finishing, though, I realized the extent of the task I'm taking on. My feet, legs, abs, back and mind were drained after just 10 miles. That's not even half of what I have coming. Next week I build up to 11 miles on my long run day, with long runs of 12 and 14 in the following weeks. After 7 weeks this winter, I've logged 124 miles in 45 days. To think some elite runners do that much in a week!