No More LT Runs!

With only 8 weeks to go until the Rock 'n Roll Marathon, I feel like every workout is critical, especially since I missed two weeks of training, including a 20 miler. Today's run was definitely the hardest workout I have had since I started running. I have been thinking about this run for the past few days, knowing that I would have to be totally focused and strong mentally to nail this run. The schedule was to run 12 miles with 7 at LT pace. My initial thought was to run them at 8:30 pace, thinking that I still have another 12 miler and a 20 miler this week. But the competitive side of me scolded myself for trying to take a short-cut. I've been attempting to run all my LT runs at 8:00 pace, and didn't want to lower my expecatations, especially on my last LT run on tap.

So, I prepared myself to run them at 8:00 pace. I decided to do it at the gym, since I wanted to make sure my pace was precise. The first 3 miles of the run were a warm-up and I ran them around 9:20 pace. At the end of the warm-up, I turned on my MP3 player and cued it to an 80s mix of When in Rome, Anything Box, Erasure, and other New Wave artists. The length of the mix was longer than the rest of the run, which worked out perfectly. I set the pace to 7.5 mph, which is 8:00 pace. The first mile was okay. My HR was around the 160s and I mentally geared up to sustain this pace for the next 6 miles. To help me through the LT miles, I broke it down into smaller segments. The first segment was to get through the first 2 miles. This would leave me with 20 laps to go. The next milestone was 1.5 miles later, which would put me at the halfway point of the LT run. The last milestone was with 10 laps to go, which I could then do a count-down to 0.

After 3 miles at a steady 8:00 pace, I took my one and only gel, a Double Latte Power Bar Gel. I downed it with half of my water bottle and kept going. The LT run got pretty hard with about 1.5 miles to go. I began to get a cramp in my side and my legs were definitely feeling it. At this point, I took off my ear plugs and just focused on each lap. With 1 mile to go, I told myself, 'let's finish this with a bang!' So, I increased the speed to 7:53 pace just so I could say that I ran the 7 miles at sub 8:00 pace (7:59 to be precise).

When I finished the LT portion of the run, I was beat, but I wanted to finish the run strong so I slowed it down to an 8:57 pace, which is my goal marathon pace, and completed the last 2 miles. When I finally finished the 12 miles, I was spent. I'm not usually one that sweats a lot, but my shirt was completely drenched. I couldn't even sit back in my car on the ride home because I didn't want to get my chair all sweaty and disgusting. But in the end, I felt great for finishing a very tough LT run.

12 miles/1:42:00/8:30 pace

Tomorrow is a rest day (watch Tiger and the Masters) and then my plan is to run a 12 miler on Friday, followed the next day by a 20 miler.