TITLE: Just the Facts, Ma'am
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: September 04, 2006 5:50 PM
DESC:
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BODY:
Okay, so much for the
maudlin confession.
How did that 22-miler go?
For the first time in a very long time, when I woke up
yesterday morning, I did not want to run. It
was exceedingly cloudy, and the evidence of hard overnight
rain lay all over the ground. And I was feeling tired.
But...
I finally urged myself out of bed. It was cool, which is
great for a long run.
The run went well, much better than I could have anticipated.
I ran
negative splits,
even though I hit my first 10K lap faster than planned.
For the full run, I averaged 8:30/mile, down from the 9:00+
miles I was running early in this training season. 8:30 is
at the lower bound of the "30-60 seconds slower than goal
pace" range that the creator of my training plan recommends
for long runs late in the season. Being this fast, I will
happily run a slower 20-miler next Sunday; my body will
need to recover.
I was especially pleased with miles 19 and 20: 8:04 and 8:02
respectively... right at marathon goal pace! And this came
at the end of a 60-mile week.
Of course, then I was sore. It felt good, though, and I was
able to go for a short walk with my family in the evening.
I had an easy 3 miles planned for this morning but took it
off so that I could take an easy bike ride with my family
later in the morning. The bike ride served the same purpose
as the run -- to loosen my legs up for the coming week --
but was so much more fun than the run would have been.
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