A Passion for Running

if what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger…

passion for running category: running on Monday, March 5 2007

I must be one tough son of a gun right about now because today’s run damn near killed me.

The footing was absolutely horrible. Ice everywhere. There was smooth, shiny ice, rough ice and rocky-rough ice. And all of it was super slippery. I estimate 1/3 of today’s near nineteen miles was run on the stuff. But despite this (and to my surprise), I came up with a terrific result.

Time: 2 hours 44 minutes
Distance: 18.74 miles
Pace: 8:45 minutes per mile
Average Heart Rate: 157

I’m still breaking new ground. Besides transitioning from 2.5 to 2.75 hours today, today’s effort is the fastest I’ve ever run a non-race long run and it was done at a nice, low heart rate on all that ice. I’m guessing that within a month or so, I’ll be doing my long runs at an 8:30 minute per mile pace.

My plan is to transition to three hour runs next Monday. That’ll give me nine or ten weeks of 20+ mile long runs before my marathon on May 20th.

Tomorrow calls for a nice, slow recovery run.

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