The minds a wicked tool

Rested great yesterday, ate well and got to bed by 9:30 on a Saturday night. Damn this just sounds like I'm old ! Well I am, but that's besides the point stay focused here people.
I was preparing for no less than a 7 mile run and had dreams of a plus 10. The 10 miler would be my longest run (ever).
I have mapped out a cool run loop that takes me out of my housing track and down to the backside entrance of the wetlands at Bolsa Chica state beach. Patrick over at  http://www.theroadmultisport.com/ knows this area well.I do too except Ive never run there.
I on the other hand have talked a lot about it and have done nothing more than bike rides with my son over there, (he likes checking out all the birds and big fish at the bridges).

Anyways I picked this loop for a few reasons, mostly because once I'm out there it limits my back out decisions. I either have to turn around and go back the way I came in. Go straight forward and hit PCH and cut it shorter. Or the master plan turn left and head south on the levy and make it a full on runners run.

I woke up at 7:00 a.m. and really wanted to sleep until 8:00 but couldn't. I was already psyching myself out that I would fail.
But that didn't last long. I got up and started quick work of preparation, Bottle,music, shorts, shoes and for Gods sake BODY GLIDE application. I am anti bloody nipples, or anything else for that matter.

Found the genre I wanted, hit the stop watch function and pushed out. It's maybe a mile or so to the wetlands from my house, I made my way there in an 8:37 mile. I was feeling confident and good.
 Then the off roading starts. This was one of the other reasons Ive wanted to do this loop,it's several miles of flat but trail running and all the cool kids I know here do it, especially the "trail guru"  http://www.midwestmultisportlife.com/ . If I'm ever going to win a shirt from one of these guy's I have to up my game, so I go on.

This trail is very cool It's a levy that splits right up the middle of a bird and wild life wetlands sanctuary, I have never looked around so much while running in my life.

Then I came to my fork where I can go straight and still come home with a decent run or hold true to my mind and what I have been wanting to accomplish and go left.
I chose left. I felt great and this is what we do to be who we are and who we will evolve into. The cool thing is once you get through this estuary you funnel out to PCH. I chose to hop the hi way and run the semi active boardwalk. This has great views of the waves, and you can people watch for about 1.5 miles or so etc..
My plan was to stop at the end of this, fill my water bottle again if necc and drop 3 SHOT BLOCKS for the 4.5 mile route I had planned home.
 To my surprise there was a running club set up right there doing some distance runs preparing for the upcoming HB 1/2 and FULL Marathon. They were all friendly and let me fill up and wished me well on my finish. I was there a total of about 2 minutes and was off and going again. I was kind of wondering how my legs would feel to stop and start, but they felt great. So conditioning of longer runs is starting to shows signs.

There is a longish, gradual climb just after crossing back over the hi way and I was really wondering with anticipation how I would feel on this? This also proved to be fine and I did this with no extra effort, just kept smooth and pushed the pace.
I have to admit I was clock watching and was really trying to prove to myself that I could do this at more of run pace versus just putting down the miles at a 10 + mpm pace.
So I really tried to stay focused on keeping my heart rate up and pushing without having to do little surges to make of time. I think all in all this worked best for me.
My run was just at 9 miles and I ran it in 1:17:58.
Even though I didn't hit 10 miles, I still ran at a 8.62 mpm pace and that is by far the best run I have done this year.
I don't know how I came up short on my calculation but easily had a couple miles left in me. I also know exactly where I can change this run and make it 3 or 4 miles longer. This I will do hopefully this next weekend.
My recovery when finished was very quick, and I really had very little soreness. I walked the neighbor hood with my son last night for a couple of miles and I feel pretty fresh.
I am doing 1250 meters in the pool today at lunch. It will be good to swim again, it's been almost 2 weeks.