feel good nine

i'm still on a high from last night's race performance. ran my shorter-long-run of the weekend, 9 miles, this morning with the dorman xc team again out in the sticks. the trail out there is great! ran it easy, it felt easy, nothing hurt, and was even able to pick up the pace for the last 2 miles. i could tell that it was much easier for me compared to the first time we ran out there. i'm sure the fact that it was 20 degrees cooler this morning helped some, but my legs and lungs were feeling much better today. it was an especially good run considering i got maybe 3-4 hours of sleep last night. just couldn't seem to fall asleep...

the breakdown:
[mile - pace, avg hr]
mile 1 - 9:41, 146
miles 2 & 3 - 17:50, 142 (forgot to hit the split at 2-mi)
mile 4 - 8:34, 151
mile 5 - 9:00, 151
mile 6 - 8:14, 153
mile 7 - 8:56, 169 *huge uphill in here
mile 8 - 8:08, 164
mile 9 - 8:09, 167 *long, steep hill to finish

am run: 9miles, 1:18:35 (8:43 avg pace), hr avg/max (154/184)

based off my max hr of 201, my 75% easy zone is 150. i did a better job of holding around that for the first half of the run, but still need to work on it. at least i don't think i am that out of shape anymore.