Before today, I had not run anything beyond about 12 miles at one time since last year's SGM. I decided I needed to get some longer runs in, so I met with fellow BBKer's at Cheris' house at 5:30am for a 20 mile run. All I can say is now I know why I avoid doing long runs. It felt hard and painful most of the way. I think the problem was the group started out faster than I wanted to run, and since I didn't want to be left behind, I tried to keep up. I was able to keep up fairly well but I wasn't enjoying it. We would stop a few times and I would think I would just run slower, but I never really did until we were about 12 or 13 miles in, then I just decided to slow and try to get some feeling back in my legs. Time was getting to be an issue because Tim had a football game at 8:00 and it was 7:30 and I was just at mile 15. I realized I wasn't going to make 20 today, so when the group turned off of 9800 So. to 3200 W., I just kept on running down 9800 So. I called my husband when I got by the elementary school and told him to pick me up, which he did. I quickly changed, and then made it off to the game, which Bingham won by the way. So I didn't run 20, I made 16, which considering how I felt, was plently for me today. I loved the company but did not really enjoy the run. Maybe I need to do more of those long ones and they'll get easier. I'm not sure what our average pace was because I didn't turn off my Garmin when we had some fairly long water stops, but I would say the majority of the run was sub 9:00 minute miles. Now if my marathon goal pace is somewhere around 8:00-8:15 minute miles, and Jeff Galloway says you should do your long runs up to 3 minutes slower than goal pace, what did we do today? This was counted as a fast continuous run. Actually, if you don't count the last two marathons I've run, this was the longest run I've done in over two years. I wish I could learn to love the long run, what is the secret? Everybody else seemed to be enjoying themselves. Hmm...I'll figure it out one day. |