My last really long run before going into the taper for my marathon. Here is the re-cap blog. The day started in the mid-30s from a temperature perspective, but it was supposed to warm up into the mid-60s. I wasn’t sure how to dress for this run and decided to gamble. Last Saturday I was sweating a lot (a bit too much actually) because I was wearing a Nike Dri-Fit jacked over my running shirt and I was hot by the time I came back from my run. I wanted to avoid this for this run. So, I settled for my red running shorts, some compression shorts, and red running T-Shirt.

The first 2 miles felt a bit chilly – especially as I was mainly running in the shade, but then I finally warmed up and life was good. The sun made its way up into the sky and it was an almost perfect day for running. I had some headwinds later on, but overall for the entire time of my run it was just fine.

Last week I had brought in a new personal best for a long run. My average pace last week was 9 minutes and 28 seconds per mile which is fairly fast for me, but maybe it wasn’t and I am just progressing with my training. So, I wanted to see how this Saturday long run would turn out. I knew that if I would head out too fast that I would risk running out of steam too early. My goal for this run was a minimum of 18 miles, but preferably I wanted to go at least 20 miles.

I went out fast, too fast for my own personal taste, but it was difficult to slow down. If you are an experienced runner you know what I mean. Sometimes we want to slow down and simply can’t because everything feels so perfectly in sync. Well, I was able to push my average pace further down and ran a new personal best for my long run with an average pace of 9.16 minutes per mile. I kind of have to say that I gave it everything I got and when I came back home I was out of energy. Good in one way, bad in another. Your training runs are not supposed to drain your energy that much, but I wanted to see if I can run and hold this kind of speed. If I can run the marathon in under 4 hours I would be extremely happy, but my current training pace times simply did not support that endeavor of reaching the 4 hour mark. So, the run last week and the run from this Saturday kind of needed to tell me if the 4 hours are feasible at all. I would need to run a 9.09 minutes per mile average pace to go under 4 hours for my first marathon. So, with a 9.16 average pace under my belt I am kind of torn if I should go for it. There are some factors that I could throw into the ring that would support this effort.

Mile 15, 16 and parts of mile 17 of my long run are a long, cruel uphill battle. Running uphill for 2.5 miles with very little flat sections is very taxing and I know I left a lot of energy on that stretch yesterday. Since I will not have that kind of uphill battle during my marathon this could translate into additional distance at the same average pace. I will also be rested when the race comes and in addition the race will be at lower altitude from where I live. On the other side I have not run the full distance yet and going for an extra 5 miles is certainly not going to be easy. So, I might have to play with the numbers and make sure that I run in a way that I can still push the 4 hours from mile 18 if I feel that I have plenty left to give. In all my long runs I was able to significantly increase the speed on the last few miles. I could run a 9.30 minutes per mile average pace up until mile #18 and then increase my speed from there. I am undecided. Anyway, here are the splits from this Saturday’s long run.

1 1.00mi 9:27
2 1.00mi 9:26
3 1.00mi 9:21
4 1.00mi 9:54
5 1.00mi 9:18
6 1.00mi 8:59
7 1.00mi 10:31
8 1.00mi 8:58
9 1.00mi 9:11
10 1.00mi 9:15
11 1.00mi 9:10
12 1.00mi 9:03
13 1.00mi 8:58
14 1.00mi 9:15
15 1.00mi 9:34
16 1.00mi 9:17
17 1.00mi 9:33
18 1.00mi 9:04
19 1.00mi 8:50
20 1.00mi 8:58
21 1.00mi 8:42

As mentioned, I ran for 21 miles this time. It was a great run, but as mentioned I could feel that I was almost out of juice towards the end. The long uphill run I talked about earlier did that to me. However, I was still able to make the last 3 miles the fastest 3 miles of the entire run by running them all under 9 minutes per mile. I am ready for my first marathon. In two weeks from today I will be running down the Strip in Las Vegas if all goes well. I made it this far with only minor injuries and (knock on wood) it will be just get better from here. Anyway, for the recovery after this long run I hopped into the bath tub at home – filled with ice-cold water. For whatever reason the cold water in my house is really ice-cold and so I do not even need to add ice to get the same benefits from an ice bath.