Plan: 18 miles with 12 at Marathon Pace (7:15 - 3:10 marathon, I guess)
Actual: 17 miles with 6 "around" marathon pace, but with an overall average pace for the 17 miles of 7:34 which is 4% slower than marathon pace.
Today was supposed to be a long run day: 18 miles with 12 at Marathon pace. Now, I've been missing some of the tempo runs and have not done any speed except a few days with 100M strides (like yesterday). I have not been running any fast work at all, or that's how it feels anyway. Moreover, the 7 days preceding today were: 21.3 @ 8:10, 10.8 @ 8:30, 9 miles at 8:55, 14 Miles at 9 min, 8.2 miles at 8:30, 13 miles up tp grade @ 8:02, and then the 8.2 miles with the 6 x 100 m strides yesterday. Total of 84 miles - probably the most ever.
I ran out with the group with Bobby Caughy - a 2:40 marathon runner who was not going to do his 6:10 pace work, but ran with me and helped me out by pacing me. We ran north from the Solana Beach train station with the group at a 8 min pace, down the hill. Pretty easy. The I moved up behind bobby who was trying to get somebody to run with him. I went with him and we began to speed up - both of us - to about 7:26 on the second mile which included uphill (2 miles was about even with Birmingham). The third mile - also uphill - went up to just past Swamis. We did that in 7:02, which considering the hill was probably like running a 6:46 - way under MP. Heart rate did not get too high at this point (147) so I was still in the right zone. The forth mile was running through Encinitas, past Encinitas blvd and up to Leucadia south. I was feeling OK still and we did this in a solid 7:15. The fifth mile I sped up. At that point Bobby - who had been slowing down for me said..."let it be known that you are the one pushing the pace now, which is below 7:00...like 6:58...you're going to kill yourself" He could hear me breathing like a dog. The sixth mile was through Leucadia, and we ran on the sidewalk. I was feeling very fatigued at that point, it was slightly uphill, and we did it in 7:22. Still sort of MP.
Around the end of the 6th mile I let him go. I felt really tired, and he was slowing down for me and I just released like on a bike, and then I slowed way down and did the 7th mile in 8:04 and the 8th mile up through Ponto in 8:10. I was just cruising at that point and concluded that my MP portion was done. Decided to turn around prior to going down the hill past at Island Way, which was about 8.5 miles and I opted for a 17 mile run.
There was a Santa Ana Wind today that was blowing from the north and so I suddenly had a tailwind going south. With the wind at my back, I sped back up to 7:43 for the 9th mile and then 7:19 for the 10th mile. I felt comfortable, but feeling the miles of the week during the 10th mile and feel confident I can run CIM at 7:15 after more speed, 8 more weeks and tapering. I ran the next 7 miles between 7:14 and 7:51 and just kept my HR below 149.
