A Passion for Running

So, I checked in with Coach this morning to report about last Monday’s long run. In that report, I told him about running up and down eight enormous highway hills, about running through clouds of mosquitoes, about running in the pitch black darkness of a country highway, and about doing my 2:15 in 8:20 minute miles.

About that last part - the 8:20 part - I also mentioned it “wasn’t my fastest ever long run”.

No, not my fastest, but damn close - on a very hilly highway route. Strangely, I was thinking I’d done a long run - a 20 miler at an 8:00 minute per mile pace.

I was wrong. I had not.

After completing today’s long run, I dug into my archives and found out a few things:

1. My fastest long run - prior to today’s - was this one. I ran the 20 miles at an overall 8:15 pace with 15 miles at sub-8:00 minute miles. It was my last 20 miler prior to Red Deer Marathon and I was STOKED about it.
2. Last week’s long run was actually pretty smokin’ - only five seconds off my best 20 miler.
3. Today’s two and a half hour run was my fastest ever long run. Including a nice, easy two mile warm-up, I ran today’s 18+ miles at a very comfortable 8:03 minutes per mile. I was not pushing the pace at all.

And the most important part? I did this at the end of a very heavy week of training. And I started the run feeling fatigued.

This is outstanding improvement. I’ve got two more weeks of training - two more long runs prior to the taper.

I’m getting excited thinking about how all this training could pan out on race day!
——–
Time: 2:29:50
Distance: 18.59 miles
Pace: 8:03 min/mile
Average Heart Rate: a nice, low 154 (target was 150 to 160)