Feeling great, looking...TIRED!?

I had such a great run yesterday that I had to share. In fact, I had a post scheduled for today that I moved to early next week. (Yeah, that post is going to be REALLY high quality [/sarcasm].) I was scheduled to do 7 miles at a 'comfortable' pace. For a lot of the afternoon, because I wasn't into work mode, I was daydreaming about what a 'comfortable' pace should be.

I decided on a pace somewhere between 8:00 and 8:15. However, just like the restraining order says, since I stalk, idolize listen to Hal Higdon, I decided to let my body dictate the pace.

I started out on the run shirtless with my chest hairs (two at last count) blowing in the surprisingly cool breeze. I told myself that I was going to only look at my garmin for pace every mile and let my body be my guide - just like in the bedroom. But, hopefully my run wouldn't be as awkward and uncoordinated.

First mile: 7:48

Damn it, too fast. That was supposed to be a warm up mile! I thought to myself, "Ok, I'll try this looking at the watch once a mile business one more time too see if I can't slow down."

Second mile: 7:37

Frick. Fail. Ok, best to look at my watch every 1/4 of a mile. Once I did that I was able to settle around 8:00 miles, but for some reason that pace seemed to be super slow. I cranked out the remainder of my 7 miles with an overall pace of 7:46 minute miles. Basically a marathon pace run. Honestly, just like I tell my wife every time before business time, I don't care if I get hurt - sometimes it just feels good to go fast***.

***What is the over/under on how long before I get a call from my wife where I can HEAR her roll her eyes at me? I'm guessing an hour.

Of course, even though I had a great run, that doesn't stop people from telling me that I look tired. People at the hotel (I'm friendly with them), clients at work, strangers on the street.... Seriously, someone needs to school these fools that telling someone that they look tired is code for "wow, you look like a donkey just sat on your face".

So far, I'm still on track for my 42 miles this week! Here are a few fun new graphs from Garmin's online tool. I punched it at the last 1/2 mile or so....