by I came home from vacation with the family Friday night. I got up the next morning at about 6:15am, and drove down to the city, parked along Kelly Drive, and got in my required 16-mile run. The weather was pretty ideal. You can feel a hint of Canadian air in some of the breezes, but I suspect it is False Fall, and we’ll get at least one more brutal round of heat before True Fall sets in.
Objectively, the run went pretty well. My per mile pace was 15 seconds better. My heart rate was about 5 beats per minute lower. It was a mile longer than I had ever run before, and I didn’t really have any intense muscle soreness in any muscle groups the way I did the week previously on the 15-miler. But I probably could have managed nutrition and hydration a bit better. But I’m getting there.
I have a 4-mile/8-mile/5-mile week ahead of me, and a 12-mile run next weekend. The 12-miler might be tough to get in because I’m going camping near State College over the weekend. So I will likely have to drive home and run 12 miles after sleeping on the ground. This is one of the challenges of training for a marathon: trying to maintain a normal life, with normal activities, while getting in all of these runs.
As I’ve noted, there’s a lot of two steps forward with this, then a step back. Here’s to hoping I can avoid that this week. Today, it is a trip to a beach with the family, then 4 miles tomorrow night. I’m curious to see how I feel and what my speed is like. They say you have to run long to run faster. I’m waiting for some dividends.
