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I spent the past weekend in Michigan on a bit of a vacation. Got up early on Saturday to do my long run. Since I'd been very lax over the preceding three weeks (only one long run, and that at just 4 miles which was what I was doing for short runs, when I got to them), I was going to cut back on my long run from the planned 18 miles to a 3 hour run which I figured would be about 15 miles. As I was running, I felt really good so I decided to push things out a bit and run further around the lake to the place where we had stayed when I was a kid and back. The distance came out to be 17 miles--just short of what I planned.
The pace wasn't the greatest (13:34), but a big part of that was my walking most of the last mile. While I felt good, I would have been better served by sticking to my original plan. Nevertheless, I was surprised at how much energy I had when I returned. I took a short nap (more because I had been up late the night before than because I had just spent nearly four hours running) and that evening swam across Duck Lake and back, a distance which I had thought would be about half a mile but turned out to be a mile. That I was able to engage in this feat of endurance after running the 17 miles indicates that I'm in better shape than I might have guessed. I may have to try a triathlon next year.