20 Miles
First 20 mile run, 8.29
Sunday morning I woke up bright and early to get ready to head out for 20 miles. The longest I have ever gone by myself. A little nervous but mostly excited. I decided to do 5 miles on the treadmill while it was still dark outside, before hitting the road. The weather was beautiful. There was a slight breeze which I ran into the first 5 miles on the road but it made it nice to look forward to turning around and having the wind at my back.
I planned to run out 7.5 miles so that I would not be tempted to cut my run short. When you run out 7.5 miles, you have to run home. I was surprised that I really didn’t get bored. Pandora was playing great music and that definitely helped!
I have been really working on my pace especially on my long runs. Starting off slow and slowly speeding up. This way I train myself not to take off to fast and to save energy for the end. This also helps keep me from getting board. I think about the run in sections of 4-6 miles. It felt great to finish the last 2 miles at a 9:15!
I was so excited after I finished! I felt like I can and will be ready for the full in 6 weeks! I needed that run so badly! I was ready for the next week of pushing my body farther than I had the week before!
My legs were pretty tired for most of this past week. I did a good 6 mile run in Ransom to train on the hills and then a 10 mile tempo run. I was not quite as excited about the second 20 miler because I could tell my legs were not as fresh as I would have liked. I knew it would be good for me though.
Second 20 mile run, 9.5
I ran the exact same route that I did last week, started with 5 miles on the treadmill and then 15 on the road. It worked well last week so I might as well stick to it. I was honestly ready to be done with the run when I started. I just was not really feeling it that morning. It was a cool morning which was very nice, but windy. I could tell after 7 miles on the road (12 total), it was going to be a challenging run home. My legs were quite tired and my left quad was really bothering me with every step. I have a hard time knowing if the pain is just tired, sore muscles or a muscle strain or something like that. I decided to take it a mile at a time. As long as I kept going I was fine, but when I had to stop at intersections it was tough getting going again. I was able to maintain a slow steady pace but I made it. I did not finish at my marathon goal pace but I was happy that I pushed through the pain finished strong.
I know there will be pain during the race and I will have to be mentally tough to push through and not get discouraged. The hardest part of training for me is the mental part! I have good days, where I feel very strong mentally and other days where I get so discouraged.
Getting stronger every day though! đŸ™‚
See you on the road!