Saturday, September 25, 2010

The Hay is in the Barn


Wasn't sure how today's long run would go. I was feeling pretty wiped during my recovery run yesterday as a result of Thursday's mile repeats. I had planned on the middle ten miles of today's run to be at marathon pace (7:20-7:25/mile), more for mental training to get used to the pace. I was prepared to just go easy the whole way if needed though, just wasn't sure if the legs were recovered enough.

First five miles went as planned, started off slowly on the downhills to the river and worked my way down to MP. From there, it was cruise control. I was feeling awesome. I didn't feel like I was doing too much or going too fast. It all just felt natural. I'm not saying it was full-on easy, but I was feeling great and didn't feel like I was pushing too hard.

Really, really good run for me. Nice to be able to do my final long run going into the taper at this pace and do it relatively comfortably, despite not-so-fresh legs. Now, just have to not do anything stupid leading up to the marathon.

Splits:
1- 8:10
2- 7:50
3- 7:44
4- 7:39
5- 7:36
6- 7:16
7- 7:17
8- 7:14
9- 7:06
10- 7:10
11- 7:12
12- 7:17
13- 7:09
14- 7:07
15- 6:59
16- 7:12
17- 7:20
18- 7:07
19- 7:10
20- 7:17
last .9 - 7:04/mile pace.

Ran 20.9 miles @ 7:19/mile pace.
Mostly paved roads, one mile of dirt road.
Very hilly.
Upper 60s to lower 70s, mostly to partly cloudy, humid.
Saucony Kinvara, shorts.

7 comments:

middle.professor said...

Sweet.

Sparkplug said...

Wow, nice job Jamie. Can't believe it's taper time already! Woohoo!

Trevor said...

Looking very strong for the 17th!

Grellan said...

Maybe you should be revising to target pace towards 7 minute miles! Great run. Enjoy the taper and don't go mad

Kim said...

Great job Jamie! Glad to see the run was smooth for you and you listened to your body.

Love2Run said...

Spectacular! Love the picture and now you just have to leave the hay in the barn for a couple of weeks!

Luc said...

Wow, great job. It's hard for me to see these numbers knowing your getting these times on hilly and technical trails. You'z a faaast man, Jamie. :)