Saved the Best for Last

After running Philly half marathon on Sunday, then doing the 800's on Thursday, on top of working out every day, my legs were dead tired after an easy 5 miler on Friday. I knew it might make my 18 miles on Saturday tough, but I've been wanting to push it on a long run so I figured now would be a good time. Our goal was to hold around a 9:30 pace, which is actually faster than I normally do my long runs. I usually run anything over 15 closer to a 9:45. I'm of the mentality that you do your long runs slow so you're fresh and ready for the quality speed workouts during the week. As much as it annoys me to run them slow, it paid off for me last year so I'm sticking with it!

We started, half asleep, around 5:45am and from the get go my legs felt like lead. After 4 miles or so I finally woke up a bit and started to find my groove. With each mile though, my legs grew more tired and a few times I felt like just stopping dead in my tracks. I didn't know we had plans to run "Shawmont Hill" until we were 7 miles into the run. And that's probably a good thing because had I known, I might have turned around and headed back early! Shawmont Hill is sort of a right of passage around here and I'll never forget the first time I ran it. I thought only the "real" runners could handle it so needless to say I thought I was pretty tough shit when I conquered it the first time. Anyway, it's a mile long hill (not a gradual incline...this is a HILL) which I haven't run in over a year. Normally this beast is a fun challenge but doing it 14 miles into a run made it pretty painful. Once I hit the top of the hill, my legs just wanted to walk back to the car. Actually, I think I would have preferred to be carried back.

Up to the point of Shawmont, we had been running under 9:30s but the hill slowed us down quite a bit. After I recovered from the painful climb I decided that I wanted to see what I had left in me. Marathon pace on tired, screaming legs sounded like the perfect idea!  I pushed through and ran that last mile at 8:14, just 2 seconds slower than my marathon goal pace. Honestly, that last mile felt the best out of the entire 18 miles. Pace felt good, stride was comfortable, and my legs felt fresher than they had the entire run. After a tough week of running, I was happy that I was able to pull that run off and finish so strong.

Here's my schedule for the week:
Mon - 5 mi, lift
Tues - 8 mi (6 x 800)
Wed - 5 mi, lift
Thurs - 7 mi (mid miles at MP)
Fri - 5 mi
Sat - 20
Sun - Off or cross train/lift