Back on the Atlanta treadmill early the next morning, looking to make up for some of those missed miles from yesterday's DNF LR. Took it easy, since my legs were still recovering from the long run. I guess it was kind of a recovery run. I had originally kind of planned on taking advantage of the spin bikes there, but my legs felt decent enough to run, so I went with it. I didn't manage to go farther than 4.1 miles, though - legs were tired. 4.1 in 35:11, 8:35 ave. Splits> 8:56, 43, 33, 12, 0:45 for 0.1.
Tuesday, Sep 4:
1 hr strength session.
Wednesday, Sep 5:
Still trying to follow the Runner's World Smart Coach training plan workout-wise, as much as I can. Exceptions are easy day paces, where I tend to go harder, and long run paces, where I tend to go slower. Again, I wasn't sure how I'd handle the tough workout... mile repeats. But I made it! 1.5 mi warmup at 7mph (8:32 pace), 3 x [1 mi @ 8.5mph (7:05), 0.5 mi @ 7mph], 7:41 cooldown. 7 in 54:30, 7:47 ave. During the second rep, I had to use my arms in the last 1/3 mi to pump hard and make it easier on my legs. The last rep felt easier and didn't require that strategy, though.
Thursday, Sep 6:
2 miles were scheduled, but it wasn't worth doing, so I substituted it with a longer cardio effort on the bike. I love riding gym bikes while reading running magazines. 60 min.
Saturday, Sep 8:
An opportunity for redemption. 18 miles scheduled... my last 2 weekend runs were 6 miles and 11.5 miles... I had done 15.2 the week before that, but even that was the longest I had done in a long time. The night before the run, I was really feeling pumped for it. Waking up is another story... tired. I packed, drove out, and got started at about 8am, an hour after sunrise.
I knew the key would be taking it easy from the start, so I just took small, slow steps... chugging along. After even 3 miles, though, I was surprised by how hard even that slow pace was. How was I going to get through? Didn't ever get too much easier. Grass was wet with due. Fortunately, it was cloudy for the first two hours. Both my iPod shuffle battery and my Garmin batteries died after about 2 hours, but the songs that play in repeat in my head and my wandering thoughts are fine, so I didn't miss the podcasts. Had a Powerbar vanilla gel that hit the spot and a Soyjoy bar. Also had 1 bottle plain water and 1 bottle of lemon + salt water.
Played mind games to get through the last of 5 laps. I call them laps, but they're really out-and-backs, where I take an alternate path for one segment of the back, which helps to make it feel more like laps, and which breaks up the monotony of the course a bit. I sometimes dread the course because it's always the same-old-same-old, but it's a good course - grass and foamy sidewalk. It lets me go by my stashed water bottles, too.
Anyway, the mind games... each lap is a bit over 3 miles, with 1 mile of running from my car to get to the starting point of the laps. During the last lap, I was excited that this would be my last, and I thought "I won't have to repeat this section again" and "this is my victory lap... just keep taking it easy and get it done". Got more dehydrated and the sun was out late in the run, though, so it got tougher. Counted down the miles. Counted down the distance until I would reach my water bottle. In the last mile, counted down the tenths and hundreths of a mile left (estimated). In the end, made it.
18.5 in 3:01:50, 9:50 ave. Slow, but got it done. This is laying the foundation for future LRs.
I could wring the sweat out from my shirts afterwards.
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