The Longest Run

Just finished the last long run of my training program. 22.06 miles at a pace of 9:49 per mile - in case you are wondering I was out running for 3 hours and 36 minutes. I would like for the time to have been a bit better but I receognize that it's been a long training week; including last Sunday's Queens half-marathon, I've run nearly 60 miles in the last 8 days. I'm definitely looking forward to a day off.

After a lot of deliberation, I decided yesterday to head out for the long run I had scheduled for last weekend. First, some background: The last long run I did was my best yet - fast and comfortable on a hilly course. Since then, though, virtually everything has felt like a struggle. Running last week in the city was particularly difficult given the return of warm and steamy weather. Figuring I might be overly run-down, I debated whether it might be to my advantage to skip this long run. On the plus side it would be a good break - mentally and physically. On the minus side, I felt I'd be opening a slippery slope to skipping future workouts and that I'd be putting a ton of pressure on myself to successfully complete the long run that's due two weeks from now (a 22-miler!). I also thought that I'd be making a bad situation worse if I haven't given myself enough recovery time along the way. In the end I decided to postpone a day - which meant missing a short workout s...

So.....two long runs down, two to go! Slightly different course for today's 20. Rather than running the full - and very hilly - length of Candlewood Isle as I have before - I added extra loops of Ball Pond. You can see the route at this link or check it out in google earth . I felt good pretty much the entire time and finished in 3:06 - good for 9:06 per mile - more than a minute per mile faster than my last long run.

My training schedule for the Chicago Marathon includes three runs of 20 miles each and one run of 22 miles; starting this weekend I've got one of these extra-long runs every other week before beginning my taper (easing off the mileage to be fresh for the actual race). I got started at 6:15 this morning while it was cool (around 60) and very, very foggy; there were periods of time during the first 6 or 7 miles where I couldn't see more than 10 or 20 yards in front of me. Overall the run went very smoothly, though the last 4 miles were really, really, really, really tough. The pain and tiredness in my legs was like nothing I've ever experienced before and I also found it hard to concentrate - for a while I couldn't remember whether we live on Lake Drive North or North Lake Drive.... I'm very pleased with the final results: 20.75 miles in 3:30:54 - good for a 10:10 minute/mile pace. The pace of my long runs has gone from 10:36 to 10:24 to 10:10 in the last month, so I ...

Set out early this morning for the week's scheduled long run, planning to do 16 miles. I felt great for the first 12 miles or so and figured my pace would be pretty good as a result. I reached a point in the route where I knew exactly how much distance I had remaining, but my total time at that point seemed kind of high. When I finished and sat down to calculate the exact mileage, it turns out I'd actually run 17.3 miles. Oops! Overall, the pace was about 15 seconds/mile faster than my last long run, so I wasn't imagining things after all; I was a full 30 seconds/mile for the first 12 miles. While I expected to be slow given that this was my fifth day in a row to run, I suspect I benefitted from attacking the hills of Central Park earlier this week . Two other notable items: I completed the workout with only two stops - one time to fill my water bottles and one time for a pit stop at the gas station. Also.....I almost had my first experience throwing up from exertion/exhaus...

Don't have the official mileage yet, but I finished 18+ this morning in 3:14:30. Thank you to everyone who sent good luck wishes via the comments or email!

The marathon training program I'm using includes 5 runs of 18-22 miles. I'm doing the first of these tomorrow when I'm up in Connecticut. I'm shooting for 18, which will be 2 miles farther than I've ever run. I've been tired and achy this week. I'm not sure why but suspect it has to do with lots of mileage in the heat and humidity. Though I've been dreading tomorrow's run for most of this week, now that I've figured out my route I'm starting to get a bit psyched for it. Wish me luck!

I set out around 7AM this morning for my weekly long run, hoping to do at least 15 miles. Though it was in the mid-60's when I left, the humidity was close to 90% and it was quite sunny. It's amazing how hot the mid-60's can feel when it's humid and sunny. I ran into Central Park and started with a loop of the Reservoir. At that point I was feeling pretty junky and thought about whether I really, really wanted to do such a long run given the weather.....but then I remembered that conditions this morning are probably as good as they are going to get for my long runs, given that the longest of those runs will take place in August and September leading up to the race in October. I kept going, and my next big milestone was reaching the point where I enter the park from our apartment (77th Street). That's the place where it's easy to say - oh, I don't really feel like running another loop of the park. Given a detour for a bio-break, I had already run 9.5 miles - ...