TITLE: 40 KM
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: August 23, 2005  4:40 PM
DESC: My recent string of pleasing long training runs continued with my longest long run of the year.  Does that portend a good race six weeks hence?
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BODY:
I did my longest long run of the season on Sunday:
four times around a 10 km loop in the local state
park, for a rough total of 24.8 miles.  This run
came at the end of my longest training week, too,
61 miles.  It was, I believe, my longest week ever.

<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2005-08.html#e2005-08-08T19_34_08.htm">
   Once again</A>,
I was pretty happy with the results.  I knew that
I needed to pace myself in order to complete this
run, so I planned to begin gently.  But, as slow
as it seemed at the time, I must have felt better
than I expected.  My four "lap" times were 51:36,
51:01, 50:38, and 48:38.
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2005-08.html#e2005-08-22T19_55_10.htm">
   Negative splits</A>!
Even better, the first three were faster than all
but the fastest split time for my recent 18-miler,
over the same course.

I broke each lap into two parts that are roughly
5K each.  Near the end of each of these parts, I
clocked a single mile in order to gauge my pace.
The eight miles, in order, were 8:36, 8:30, 8:33,
8:23, 8:27, 8:08, 7:40, and 7:27.  Yes, I ran the
24th mile in 7:27.

Total time: 3:21:53.  Color me pleased!

Later in the day, I went back to compare my time on
this route with the same training runs for my previous
two marathons.  My log reminded me that I was unable
to do this route last year, due to flooding from
heavy rains in the preceding week or two.  But back
in 2002, I ran this route on September 21, as part
of my then-longest (by far) week ever of 51 miles.
I didn't run negative splits that year, though my
fourth lap was my second fastest.  The run took me
3:59:38.  My improvement in two years was about 38
minutes. 

Notice, too, how late my longest long run came in
2003.  My 2004 24-miler came on the same weekend,
September 19.  By hitting 24 miles a month earlier
this year, I have the luxury of being able to do two
more long training runs: a 22-miler next weekend and
a 20-miler exactly three weeks before the race date.
I can focus these runs on pace management and speed,
without having to worry about endurance.

At this point, I am guardedly optimistic that I can
make a solid improvement on my marathon time from
last year.  The guardedness reflects the intrusion
of reality...  I took restroom breaks during the
training run that I will hope not to take during the
race.  Those rests, however brief, improve running
time at the cost of actual time.  Plus, there is a
big difference between early 8 &frac12;-minute miles
and early 8-minute miles.  But I will also rest my
body in the weeks leading up to the race, and I will
do more to manage my diet and sleep.  We'll see.

Doing this run reminds me just a bit about how
grueling the marathon is.  As happy as I was with
my time, my quadriceps are still feeling it two days
later.  Over the course of the run, I lost eight
pounds.  (Don't worry; most of that comes back with
a moderate-sized meal later in the day.)  And I needed
a nap on Monday, though I didn't get to take one. :-)

Back to the track tomorrow morning...
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