New Distance

14.8km.  I'll spare you the details but it felt pretty good.  I tried timing the run but must have turned off the stopwatch function on the ipod at one point because it was way less than anticipated.  It was about 1:40, a pace of about 6:45 per km.  Not fast but that is the point of the long slow run.

I usually choose not to run with music since I enjoy focusing on what is around me and how my body feels when running but I had decided to bring my ipod when tackling such a long distance.  Then I forgot it.  So I made it that long without music or podcasts.  It does become a bit of a mind game when you've already run 10km and the end is not visible at all.  That said, after km 11 I usually start to feel my best and pick up speed a little.

This was the first time I brought fuel with me:  1-2 tbsps creamed honey in a ziploc.  As the distances increase I think I will soon need to take in calories during the run.  I didn't feel like I needed anything this time but I decided to eat a quick bite of honey about a km before finishing to see how my body would react to ingesting something on the run.  No adverse effects and it probably provided some much-needed energy.

Less than positives:  my left knee hurt when I stopped running.  It didn't feel sore at all on the run but twinged the second I stopped for the whole walk home (I always stop about 500m from home to cool down by walking back).  It is fine now but this was my first incident of joint pain and that is unsettling.  The pads of my feet have been tender too.  I'm reluctant to blame the fivefingers, though, because they don't hurt when I run but do sometimes when wearing the Toms walking around the city.  Time will tell.

I even forgot something:  I did 3km in my old runners just to start getting my feet and calves used to shoes.  It felt horrible.  I was winded the whole time.  It felt like blocks of styrofoam on the bottoms of my feet.  Shoes make me sad.  Perhaps it is all in my head.