Wednesday, August 22, 2012

That Time I ABSOLUTELY Killed My 20 Mile Run!

I ran 20 and OWNED it, unlike the last 20 which made me cry. And I did on all of 3 hours sleep, damn boyfriends and insomnia!

Ok, so what was different?  2 major things, I went wayyy slower than I like to and it was rainy and not at all humid.  I felt great and if pushed, I could have run the whole 26.2....but I'll save that for Chicago!

The original plan was to run the NYRR long training run #2, but we didn't realize until last minute that it was on Sunday and running partner couldn't make it.  Also on the original plan was a 16 miler but I knew I couldn't run 20 this coming (birthday!!) weekend so I switched it up. As luck would have it my old running crew was coming to my hood to do a long run so I decided to tag along with them.  Running partner met us but when she realized how slow we were going she bailed and ran 15 on her own. I decided to stick with the slow pokes for 2 reasons - I knew a few of them would add on miles at the end and I know that part of my problem aside from dealing with the heat has been trying to keep up a faster pace and pushing myself a little to much on my longs.

Overall, it was the best training run I've had and the entire 2nd half was one big giant negative split! Wahoooo! While at times I felt like were going super slow, it helped me to kick ass at the end.  My average pace was 10:49 per mile and not at all what I'm hoping to run come race day, but I knew that slower would better and I was ok with that. It was also nice to see miles 19 and 20 were at a 9:50 pace.

As I move into week 10 of my training I need to really keep focused.  My birthday is Fri which means a few extra meals with friends out, so I have to watch the wheat.  I've been doing so/so with avoiding wheats/bread...but it's really hard!  I was at an event with my bf in the Hamptons where I managed to eat just about every passed hors d'oeuvre that came my way, plus 2 lobsters so needless to say the scale moved up a little, but I'm still lower than what I was so I have to just accept it and move on. Ok, enough about food!

I'm excited to finish out my training, I love that I get up excited to run and I'm loving that I have another 20 in my plan to gauge how I'm doing.  I'm not sure if that 4:20 marathon is in the cards, but ya never know!







3 comments:

Mike said...

Nice run! Congrats on hitting 20! Don't worry about the time. You WILL be faster in Chicago. Saturday was a great day to run despite the rain. I ran 16 myself whihc kept me on schedule. More about it on the blog.

Carrie said...

Great job and good for you for slowing it down. It will pay off in the end :)

kilax said...

Awesome! I love how a solid run makes me feel! WTG!!!

And happy early bday!!!