hurried ten-miler -- June 15

Time slipped by, what with getting ready for the trip and having (kya!) social obligations; ended up eating too much and feeling sluggish a couple of days in a row. But I also snagged a new pair of shoes, ASICS gel very basic from Dick's at the Mall; under $40, and nice and bright white (well, for now) -- visible for sure. Anyhoo, it was dry yestereve, so I took off after getting home for about an hour before picking up ninja girl from her class. Had planned to go up the Quabbin observation tower, but it was a bit too far. By the time I was crossing Winsor dam it was just over 30 mins, so I had to do the basic loop only, i.e. exit on to 9 and follow that all the way home.

Time: 1:15:27
Speed: 7.96 mph
Distance: 10.02 miles

Comment: nice variety of slopes and flats, and although it was all road I got to use a fair bit of verge. It was muggy but windy, and the water looked like the ocean, it was so dark and choppy. Great view of the spillway in full flow, spume rising from the waterfall under the bridge. I stopped there a bit and so the time is a tad incorrect. The shoes were fine, nice and soft, plenty of room but secure. I was very tired afterwards as I hadn't really gotten psyched up for a longer run. Soon it will be mainly short morning runs, with long ones only on weekends. One negative: knee soreness that reminds me I need to be x-training by riding a bike; fortunately that will be easy while I'm in Japan. Only a few runs left before the trip: probably shorter ones, it's so busy. But I'm at least pretty close to the prepped state I'd wanted. Almost 8 mph in this one, and that's probably it for me in solo runs; maybe 8.5 will have to be my fall target, when the competitive runs begin.