Detroit Marathon Training - Week 11 - Run #3 (post #100!)
Today was another long run. One which kicked my butt. Hard. Last Sunday's 16 miler was not so bad, so I was hoping to get away with another good run today. No such luck.
I can't blame it on the weather though. While I went to bed fearing that my run would be washed out due to storms that were predicted, I woke up to fairly dry conditions. By the time I started my run (around 10am), it was partly sunny and in the 60s. Not bad for my first official run of the fall.
Things started off pretty well. I tried to stick around the 8:30 pace of last week. Unfortunately during mile 4 or 5, my body let me know that it needed a trip to the boys room (despite having done so before I left). During the next 2 miles, it was a struggle to keep going. Finally, I managed to make it to Peninsula and hit up the public restroom. Were it not for that, today's run would have been a disaster. This was not something that would have been done nicely behind a few bushes.
Once back on track, I made it the 9 miles to my turnaround point, and still felt pretty good. I don't remember exactly, but I think it was around the time I started mile 14 that the wheels started to come off. My legs were just not happy and my head was full of doubt. There were a number of times I wanted to stop, but I knew that would only make next week's run all the more difficult. So I trudged ahead. Just as I started mile 17, a guy passing me on his bike yelled out "How many you doing today?", to which I replied "18". He then asked "How many left?", to which I replied "2!". He then cheered me on and told me to keep going. This is the first time something like that has happened to me, and it was surprisingly uplifting. So I kept on going, and I did manage to finish those last 2 miles without stopping.
18 miles - 2:39:50 (about an 8:53/mi pace). Not as good as last week, but decent. If I ran that pace for the marathon, it would be almost exactly my finishing time from the Flying Pig back in May. Obviously, I want an improvement. But looking back, none of my long runs leading up to the Pig were near the actual pace I finished at. So I guess that is a good sign.
Weekly Total: 32.2 miles
Yearly Total: 661.5 miles
I can't blame it on the weather though. While I went to bed fearing that my run would be washed out due to storms that were predicted, I woke up to fairly dry conditions. By the time I started my run (around 10am), it was partly sunny and in the 60s. Not bad for my first official run of the fall.
Things started off pretty well. I tried to stick around the 8:30 pace of last week. Unfortunately during mile 4 or 5, my body let me know that it needed a trip to the boys room (despite having done so before I left). During the next 2 miles, it was a struggle to keep going. Finally, I managed to make it to Peninsula and hit up the public restroom. Were it not for that, today's run would have been a disaster. This was not something that would have been done nicely behind a few bushes.
Once back on track, I made it the 9 miles to my turnaround point, and still felt pretty good. I don't remember exactly, but I think it was around the time I started mile 14 that the wheels started to come off. My legs were just not happy and my head was full of doubt. There were a number of times I wanted to stop, but I knew that would only make next week's run all the more difficult. So I trudged ahead. Just as I started mile 17, a guy passing me on his bike yelled out "How many you doing today?", to which I replied "18". He then asked "How many left?", to which I replied "2!". He then cheered me on and told me to keep going. This is the first time something like that has happened to me, and it was surprisingly uplifting. So I kept on going, and I did manage to finish those last 2 miles without stopping.
18 miles - 2:39:50 (about an 8:53/mi pace). Not as good as last week, but decent. If I ran that pace for the marathon, it would be almost exactly my finishing time from the Flying Pig back in May. Obviously, I want an improvement. But looking back, none of my long runs leading up to the Pig were near the actual pace I finished at. So I guess that is a good sign.
Weekly Total: 32.2 miles
Yearly Total: 661.5 miles
posted by Brad at 1:46 PM
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