It's starting to sink in......finally!

Today when I got up to do my 20K run, I had several routes in mind and I couldn't decide which one to pick. Should I run from my house and do a 10K out and back? Should I go up Church Street all the way to the waterfront and then turn around? What about driving to the waterfront and then running 20K there?
It was a weird feeling not knowing what route to pick.

I decided to make a compromise. I drove to Valley Farm Road and Finch, the same spot where Ken and I saw the deer one week ago, and from there I ran to the waterfront trail and back.
With my location out of the way, the next thing to figure out was my walk breaks. Running alone, especially for 20K, is hard because at least with a group the walk breaks are easier to figure out. When I'm running on my own I find it harder to take regular breaks as I get "lost" in my thoughts and before I know it I'm running longer than I'm supposed to. I decided to run for 5K then take a 1 minute breaks. This worked well as the 5K mark was just at the start of the waterfront trail, at the bottom of Liverpool road, and there was a water fountain there which I needed on the way back. The 10K mark came just past the Pavillion and I took my gel at this point.

Running along the waterfront trail was amazing today and I saw a few bikers, runners and walkers along the way. All of them had smiles on their faces and you could tell that they were enjoying being outside so early in the morning. It was nice not having to avoid cars for a change.

My biggest problem, of late, has been running too fast during my long runs and then feeling sore immediately afterwards. Today, I wanted to feel like I could run another 20K after doing my run today. For that to happen, it meant slowing my pace down and I'm happy to report that that is just what happened.

As I reached my car I knew I could have gone longer because I wasn't going as fast as I usually do. As I prepare for my 50K trail race, I'm going to use today as I reminder of how I should feel after my long runs.