Can you still call it a "group run" if there are only two people?

So today's group run was not really very group-ish. It was actually a duo run...or maybe I should call it a buddy run. The only other person who could make it out this morning was Lindsey.

The weather was really blech--leaden gray overcast skies, temps in the upper 30s with a chilly wind, high humidity, and some light rain. It definitely would have been better without the wind and rain. I never made it to the hat-and-layer-removal stage. Every time I started to flirt with the idea, the wind would kick up again and I'd think "I'm not taking my hat off! I'll freeze to death!"

The weather being what it was, I wanted to run and get done so we could move on to more pleasant things, like yummy bakery breakfast items. We hit Mile 1 at 11:09 and kept right on truckin' from there, hitting mile 2.7 (first water stop) at 29:30, Mile 4 at 44:18, Mile 5.3 (second water stop) at 58:28, and the blissful longed-for end at a pretty super 1:26:42 (that's a 10:50 pace per mile--sub 11, baby! Woooot!). With Lindsey's permission, I really kicked it up on the last 2 miles or so and rocked out. Even so, Lindsey was less than 2 minutes behind me and said she felt good at the end.

It feels like 8 miles is a distance we've done half a dozen times now, but guess what? This was only the third time we've run it. (With steady improvement: first time was 1:35:00, second time was 1:32:59, and today was 1:26:42!!) We'll get to do it again on Thursday as the 8-mile runs invade the week, no longer content to just hang out on weekends.

It's weird how quickly you can adapt and change your thinking to the point that 8 miles is no longer a quake-in-your-shoes sort of distance. I mean, yeah, it's 8 miles and takes a while to run, but there's no doubt in my mind that I can run it and do reasonably well. And today I only slurped down one gel instead of the usual two. I just didn't feel like I needed another one at the second water stop, so I munched on a few pretzels instead and called it good. I wore my new water belt today with some gels in the pouch, so I figured if I suddenly bonked at mile 7, I could just grab a gel and some water and remedy the problem on the spot.

When I run 8 again on Thursday, I am going to see if I can make it all the way to mile 4 and just have one gel there. My plan for next Saturday's ten-mile race is to do a gel at miles 4 and 8 and have some salt at mile 6.

All every runner thinks about during the last mile of a training run is what she's going to eat afterwards.

Say hello to my delicious asparagus-and-crab omelet with scratch-made hollandaise sauce!

(Yes, it was every bit as good as it looks and sounds.)

Lindsey opted for the apple-cinnamon pancakes and enjoyed them thoroughly. We also drank the requisite kazillion cups of coffee. Why does coffee taste SO good after a long run??