Distractions and the possibility of underachieving?

I did not have mellow mushroom for lunch on friday. So, I decided to just order a pizza on friday night to prepare for my long run. Now, mellow mushroom is the magic running pizza, but I figured that another type of pizza would be okay, too. On my way home from work, I got a call from my parents saying that my grandma had been taken to the hospital and they weren't sure what was wrong.

Turns out, she had a hernia, an enlarged gall bladder (due to gall stones), and an infection that they couldn't locate the source of. Nothing life threatening, but when you are 88 years old, any stay at the hospital can be worrisome. She is hopefully going home this morning, and I think she is going to be okay.

So, my friday night was thrown off a little and even getting up Saturday morning, I really didn't know what all was going on. But, I got to the park on time, met my new long run running partner, Brad and we were running by 6:36. Shelby Bottoms has paved paths for walkers, bikers, and runners, that equals about 10 miles in total. It was a neat run, though I must admit, I was kind of turned around the whole time. I didn't realize that it looped around, I kept thinking that there was a point where we had to turn around and go back. The weather was perfect and it was nice having a running partner. When we first started, I could barely talk and run. I was huffing and puffing a lot, feeling a little embarrassed, but eventually I settled into our quick pace and though I had 12 planned (he only had 10 planned) we both stopped at 10.5. I stopped because when I looked at our time, our average time was 8:40! I couldn't believe that I had ran 10 miles at an average 8:40 time. That's marathon goal time!

Apparently, I've been underachieving a bit. I guess I've gotten comfortable in my 10 minute miles and rarely feel the need to push myself. So, I think this new running partner is going to turn out great. Honestly, I could have ran another 1.5 miles, but i just didn't feel like overdoing it. I'm amazed though. I didn't really feel like we were running that much faster. I did look at our pace twice in the run and we were running 8:23 and 8:34.

I am sore in places that I've never been sore from running before. My hamstrings and whatever that muscle is that runs along the inner thigh is very sore. I think I adjusted my stride during the run to keep up, which is why my hammies and thighs are sore.

I'm going to take it kind of easy this week and let my muscles repair a bit, before moving into 40 mile weeks next week.