Let me start off this post by saying that this discussion wouldn’t even be necessary if I got out of bed at a reasonable hour on the weekends.

I was doing so well when I was training for the Rehoboth Marathon. On the days that I was scheduled to run 20 miles, I set an alarm for 5:30 a.m. and named it, “You won’t BQ by lying in bed!!!” (Hey, it worked!) But this time around, I’ve been, shall we say, much less diligent.

I’ve been sticking to the same long run schedule, including the three 20-milers, but I haven’t been waking up at the butt crack of dawn to get it done. Last week, when it was time to run the first of those 20-milers, I didn’t get underway until after noon. (The night before was a girls’ night out in downtown Annapolis, so, well …. you know.) This week was a stepback week, so my long run was 12 miles — and I didn’t get out of the house until close to 11 a.m.

That would have been OK, except that I had planned to go to Cat Yoga with some work friends at 1 p.m. in Galesville, about 15 minutes south of where I live, so I knew I would be cutting it real close. In the end, I decided to run 10 miles, go to yoga (which was awesome — cats are awesome) and then run the last two miles after class.

I’ve never split up my long run before, and I don’t know how I feel about it. At least I did the majority of the run in one chunk, and it felt great — today’s weather was drizzly and overcast, but it was in the 50s. While I loved the random 80-degree day we had a few days ago, I do think I run better when the temperatures are in the 50s and 60s. I probably ran the 10-miler a hair faster than I should have for a long run, but it was hard to pace myself when I was feeling that good.

After class, I ran the last two miles at a 7:40ish pace, which I’m happy with because I’ve been working on finishing the long runs fast anyway. Plus, after a run and a yoga class, I was ready to take a shower and relax and just get it done for today.

Have you ever split up your run like that? Does it make a difference in the, well, long run?