Run The Long Road Coaching

personalized coaching for distance runners

20 miles

20 Miles – Take 2

by 5 Comments

2/19/11

20 miles

3:05

9:15 avg pace (damn you wind)

Lesson learned:  don’t run 20 miles when there is a wind advisory.  When I checked weather.com last night, it said 25 mph winds with gusts up to 40 mph.  Hmmm.  I really wanted to get this done on Saturday and not push the run to Sunday so I figured it would be a training in mental toughness.  Oh it was.  I threw all hopes of maintaining a consistent pace out the window and just tried to run along with and against the wind.  At certain points I must have looked like the biggest jackass because the gusts were so severe my running slowed to a crawl (I seriously thought I was going to levitate).

That was me...minus the palm trees

(source)

Two things made this run bearable:  (1) it’s not that cold so the wind wasn’t that biting, straight-to-your-bones feeling and (2) my neighbor, “Maximus“, joined me for the first 8 miles!

I won’t bore you with splits.  To be honest, I’m exhausted and don’t feel like retrieving them.  Let’s just say that eastbound was great (wind at my back) and westbound was a nightmare.

I’m looking forward to hanging in tonight with Matt and Hawk and watching Friday Night Lights.  A beer or two may be consumed.  And lots of carbs.

Have a great weekend everyone!

PS:  Wanted to give a shout-out to my friend Anne who just completed her first race this morning, the Frostbite 5 Miler.  She did awesome, despite all the wind.  Apparently power lines were down and they had to re-route the course.  She ran a great race…I’m very proud of her!

The First 20

by 7 Comments

1/29/11

20 miles

3:04

9:12 avg pace

I was looking forward to this run all week, mostly because I had a goal…to run sub-9:00 min miles.  I knew I could do it.  But Mother Nature didn’t cooperate.  I headed to my go-to place, Kelly Drive, which is always plowed.  Turns out it wasn’t so plowed.  I guess there was just too much snow for them to keep up with it.  They were actually plowing as I ran but the bottom 2 inches were just ice/snow/slush that remained on the ground.  Waaaaaah!

So this is how the run went:  run fast, hit snow, run slow, run fast (yeah! no snow), hit snow, slow down ($%&^!).  I included my splits below and you can see I was all over the place.

I know I’m being hard on myself – 9:12 avg pace is pretty good for all that snow.  I keep reminding myself that I’m only in the 4th week of training and I have many, many long runs ahead of me 🙂

Splits:
M1 – 9:58
M2 – 9:14
M3 – 9:01
M4 – 9:14
M5 – 9:03

M6 – 9:08
M7 – 9:08
M8 – 9:11
M9 – 9:07
M10 – 9:14
M11 – 9:07
M12 – 9:18
M13 – 8:58

M14 – 9:31
M15 – 9:09
M16 – 8:44
M17 – 9:00
M18 – 9:29
M19 – 9:30
M20 – 9:45

Some pics from today’s run:

Pretty, but awful to run on
Boathouse Row
Well hello Rocky!

Tonight is date night and Matt and I are heading to dinner.  Can’t wait for much needed beer and a good meal (with dessert)!