We did it - 8 miles

So despite kind of slacking on our running training the last 2 weeks (we did hiking, walking and weight workouts, but not much actual running), Tom and I made a commitment to ourselves to keep up with the long runs - no matter how long it takes us. So Saturday we ran 8 miles (well, we walked some of it, but we went 8 miles overall). I definitely could feel it, although part of what I was feeling was joy. It was a lot of fun. I listed to Justin Timberlake's FutureSexLoveSounds and just jammed. That is a great album to run to. Towards the very end (last mile) I was getting a not-quite right feeling in my legs (as in injury could happen, better adjust). So I walked some and then changed my stride to really engage my butt and arms to push myself off rather than clodding down with my knees and flat feet (I tend to clunk a lot when I'm tired and don't use my muscles). My legs felt better, and then when I got back to the car I stayed and did a lot of stretching as I cooled down which helped immensely the rest of the weekend. I wore my heart rate monitor and that was a really big help - I wasn't trying to keep myself in a % heart rate, but I did pay attention to my perceived efforts and how that correlated to my heart rate beats-per-minute. And it was nice to see the amount of calories burned at the end.