Friday, Saturday, Sunday... 8.12 miles, 8.01 miles, 18.04 miles.. 7:47 pace, 7:40 pace, 7:47 pace. Quite a few sub 8 minute work in a row for me as I continue to build fitness in my not quite official marathon cycle.
It's been an interesting few months after my last race, starting with some downtime, running at altitude an a bunch of easy miles. Followed that up with some extra track work in preparation for a 5K. Plus the summer heat has been brutal on me this year. All that combined has left me feeling a bit off but capping my 4th 50+ mile week in a row I'm finally starting to feel my body coming back around. It's hard to explain really... I've had some good quality workouts, some solid long runs, and some to level endurance efforts as well, but I've never quite "felt" the fitness that my workouts indicate.
These last few days it's starting to come together... Running 7:4X pace, in the heat, with not too much effort and no issues recovering.
The cherry on top was Sunday's long run:
2:20:38
7:47 pace
I started out late on this run after sleeping in (around 9 am). The temp was already at 75 degrees and climbed to 85 by the end of the run. I decided to start off harder than usual, pushing the first 4.5 miles to my first stopping point. My 2nd mile was my fastest of the day at 7:33 and my HR was close to 150 by mile 3. There's a picnic table 4.5 miles into the trail, and I've been carrying a Gatoraid bottle that I drop off at the picnic table. It's a good place to stop and get a quick drink. This time I took my shirt off as well.
Running shirtless in the heat made a noticeable difference. I slowed a bit after the 4.5 point running my slowest mile of 7:59 for mile 5. By now I was cruising through. I had originally been contemplating only running 14 miles because of the heat, but then decided to push it to 15. At the 7.5 mile point I felt so good I kept going and by the 8 mile point I figured I might as well keep running until I got to the bathroom in Wyoming. I made good use of the bathroom, cooling myself down in the sink with some water and drank a bunch more and took a goo. Fueled and rehydrated, I jogged a 1/4 mile into Wyoming downtown to get to 9 miles and then turned around and started back to the start.
Stopped one more time at the bathroom for one more splash of water and one more drink and then back on the trail. I kept the pace going from Wyoming to the picnic table running 7:49, 7:41, 7:41, 7:42. At the 13.5 mile point I stopped at the picnic table to grab my shirt and finish my Gatoraid. Now only 4.5 miles left.
I had put my shirt back on and immediately regretted it. It was still soaked with sweat and the extra weight and temperature capture were doing a number on me. After 2 more miles I stopped again to quickly discard my shirt at a point where a road intersects the trail. The last 3 miles, the heat and fatigue started catching up to me. I pretty much kept pace 7:42, 7:42, 7:48 but my HR took off towards the 160s averaging 164 by the last mile.
Overall, I'm very happy with this run. I ran hard but never lost form and despite my HR creeping up at the end I never really slowed down or broke pace. Not a single mile over 8 minute pace and I negative split the whole run, despite starting off strong and the heat... in fact it seemed that starting off strong helped.
The only negative about the run was that I had about 10 minutes of breaks mixed in from 5 separate stops. Probably at least 5 minutes was the one stop at the Wyoming bathroom and the other 4 stops were about 1 minute each. Due to the heat, I think the stops were necessary to keep me fueled and hydrated and without the stops I probably would have at least slowed down or not have been able to run as far. The last few days have been a confidence booster. I think once the temperatures cool off and I hit a 50 degree day I'll be pleasantly surprised in what I can pull off.
Today (Monday) was my "off" day so I did an easy 4 miler. First 2 miles were 8:26 pace then 8:07, 7:52 for the last 2 miles after I started loosening back up. Kept the HR in the low 130s the whole time.
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