Monday was a 6 mile day but was also Labor Day. I signed up for a community race several months ago and forgot about it somewhat. Then I saw packet pickup was on my calendar and remembered. So I made a plan to meet a new person I haven't run with before at the start of the race about an hour beforehand. Enjoyed running with a new person, always makes for new conversation. I did 2.3(ish) miles to warm up for the race with her (avg pace 9:57). I remembered that when I ran this race last year it was only 3.8 miles instead of the 4 miles it was billed to be. I had a really great result last year and it would have been a PR. But I was hesitant to count it last year because it was significantly shorter than 4 miles.
This year's plan was to push it pretty hard and maybe even to the max of my comfort level to try to PR again. I am typically competitive with myself when I'm running a race I already did (can current me beat younger me kind of thing). My hope was that it would be closer to 4 miles this time. I discovered upon arrival at the start, that they changed the course slightly and moved the start to a farther away location. This made the race 3.91 miles... according to my watch anyway. Once again I pushed myself more than I usually would. The first mile was really fast (for me, anyway) and I looked down and saw 8:42 at the beep. The day was far cooler and less humid than last year's same race. The next 2.91 miles I had between 8:57-9:04 but basically was able to hold a pretty good pace. I've decided to count the new PR for 4 miles but I'm not sure if it's really accurate. However, I asked the question "Had I not been wearing my watch, would I have counted this as a 4 mile PR?" I probably would have.... So I will... but it's unlikely I'll be beating that one for a while, if ever...
I hadn't run a race where I really felt compelled to go fast in a while. Usually my body and mind are screaming at me to quit running so fast if I get that pace in a training run. I've also been training in extremely hot/humid weather and since it's a marathon distance with long runs 13+ I've been working on pulling the pace to a slower and more comfortable level . So with this in mind, I wasn't actually sure if I could do a less than 9 min/mile pace for any longer than a mile at this point. I found myself pleasantly surprised. The weather being better certainly helped.
This race prompted me to think about post marathon goals. I signed up for 3 relatively inexpensive 5k's (Thanksgiving Day, December/holiday themed, and New Year's Day). Other than that, I only have one other race (a mid January 7.5 miler) planned for 2017. I have a half marathon in late March/early April in mind but so far no registration opening for that one.
So, I'm thinking after this I need to chill out some. That doesn't mean I'd never try to do another full, but maybe it would be better for a milestone birthday coming up...
It crosses my mind periodically that I'd like to run a sub 2 hour half marathon some day. Then I start to wonder if I'd really be able to hold that pace for that long.. another thought for another day... maybe a new training plan required for this goal.
Ok, I digress...
Wednesday did 7 miles which was a step down from my midweek run last week which was 8 miles. I welcomed the break and ran at a decent pace. (10:18)
Thursday felt some fatigue and the heat/humidity was awful so was able to do about 5 miles just over 11min/mile. I realized that after the race Monday and then 2 other fast(ish) runs this week that I needed to have a more relaxed pace. I also tried running in a new neighborhood for about a mile and found out that it was hilly and the lack of sidewalks made it mostly unpleasant. Not sure I'll be going there again.
Saturday had a 19 miler on the schedule and agreed to meet at a different trail because as mentioned earlier, I'm getting sick of the same places and same trails. Met some other runners getting 19 miles as well at 6(ish)am, but now it's dark at that hour so I brought my headlamp. I didn't realize it was so low on battery so the light was kind of eh... But it got me through the first 3.5-4 miles until the sun came up, and we met up with a local running group at 7 who were planning on 15 miles. I really enjoyed the trail and it didn't seem that bad. It was a shady trail for the most part. There was one spot where the sun was out that seemed unbearable, but it was over after a few miles. 19 miles actually went rather quickly, considering...as quickly as 3.5 hours of running can go. Kept a decent 11 min/mile pace. Considering it was 73 degrees and high humidity when we started, I was happy with this. It was nice to run with a group again because the 18 miler was tough to do solo. Distance PR! Until the 20 mile run in 2 weeks.
Next week is a shorter long run . Then one last week with a long run until taper...
Week 14 will be: 6/7/6/12 =31 miles. I might need to break the 12 miler up into two 6 mile runs due to my weekend schedule. But that's ok. I could use a change.
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