Yesterday I ran my last long run before the Mill Race Marathon. Crawled out of bed at 5:30 am so I could eat and simulate race day. Then I drove to Eagle Creek Park to meet up with my training group to start the run. Driving up, and even after I had paid the park entry fee and parked my car, all I wanted to do was crawl back in bed... turn around and go back home... do this run at a more reasonable hour later in the day...
But, I was here and went through the motions. Next thing I knew I was lining up to start the run. We ran from Eagle Creek Park to Zionsville and back. There were water stops at miles 4.5, 8, 12, and 15.5. I carried a GU for each water stop. Initially I had planned to start at marathon pace (9:00 is what I decided) and run some distance at pace before dropping down to a cool down pace. Coach Matt on the other hand had different advice. His was to take the first half easy, then run marathon pace on the way back... but, I was told, this course was harder (hillier) than Mill Race so it might be harder to hit marathon pace. In my sleepy state yesterday I had no arguments. In fact, I just wasn't feelin' it. I didn't feel like running fast. Maybe I'd just take it easy the whole way and just get the miles in. Just, just, just... one of the worst words in the English language.
Well... I started out nice and easy. Once I woke up out of my fog I noticed it was actually a beautiful morning. Temps in the 60's. Shady. The Park was beautiful. Ran the first 5 miles ranging between 9:35 and 10:04 pace lollygagging along. Then I charged an uphill. It felt good. Next thing I knew my watch beeped an 8:58 mile 6. Went through mile 7 at 9:04. I wasn't even halfway done at that point so I tried to put on the brakes. After reaching the turn around I still didn't feel like intentionally speeding up so I decided to run a steady state where I continued to feel good. This lasted until mile 15 when suddenly it felt hard. 15 and 16 were tough. I went through the last water stop and decided I'd try to hit marathon pace for the last 4 miles. 8:49, 9:17, 9:01 and 9:01. Not too bad.
Average pace for all 20 miles ended up being 9:26. Quite a bit faster than I anticipated. Ran the whole thing 26 minutes faster than I did last week. Maybe there's hope yet for me at Mill Race. Then again, I only ran 94 miles the whole month of August... who an I kidding? Oh... but I hope...
So here's how the rest of the week went...
Sunday 9/3 - 5 miles. Ran the county road mid-morning before going to work.
Monday 9/4 - Zero miles. Way tired in the morning then worked all day.
Tuesday 9/5 - 10 miles. Run Club workout tonight was a hill circuit. 2 mile warm up. The hill circuit is 1.25 miles long. Did 4 loops and tried to hold a steady pace. Actually didn't commit to running the last loop hard until halfway. 5 miles of hills total at 8:47, 8:36, 8:48, 9:15 and 9:13. 3 mile cool down. Not a bad work out.
Wednesday 9/6 - Zero miles. I couldn't move.
Thursday 9/7 - 10 miles. Easy pace on the Monon.
Friday 9/8 - 5 miles. Really tired and pretty sore today so considered not running at all but hauled myself out on the Monon again because I felt like I had to get some shake out miles in before attempting 20 on Saturday and turned out OK.
Saturday 9/9 - 20 miles.
50 miles for Week 15.
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