17 miles in 1:46:40, treadmill. First 4 on one treadmill with a fan behind me, felt super easy (essentially treadmill + tailwind), but at about 3.8, the belt started slightly skipping, so I hopped on another with a fan in front of me after 4 miles, which felt only marginally harder, but noticeably so. First 8 miles at average 6:20 (~MP), alternating 6:18 and 6:22, next 2 at 6:00 flat (just a hair slower than tempo), next 3 alternating 6:18 and 6:22, 1 at 6:00 flat, and then 3 more alternating 6:18 and 6:22. Really freaking hard workout, but I probably had 2 or 3 miles worth of MP left before the wheels would have come exploding off, and even on mile 17, I felt in control. What makes me happiest about this is that it came 5 days after the BOSHO Trail Marathon race. I had felt like that race wasn't quite at the same effort level as a road marathon since it's hard to gauge effort perfectly with all the varying grades and footings, and it took until yesterday for my legs to feel pretty normal again, but today, they felt great. Yesterday, I felt like doing a long workout today would be a gamble, but I definitely made the right call. If I can hit 5 more super clutch workouts like this before Utah Valley, keeping my average mileage at roughly 80mpw and, most importantly, not beating myself up, I will be ready to rock. I will go pretty easy tomorrow and then do a long run Saturday. |