This morning I decided to do a long marathon pace tempo run. It may not be the greatest idea to do 1 week before the marathon but I hadn't done one yet and figured it could help me out. I tried to do a 12 mile tempo last week but my hammy knotted up after 8 miles during a 3 mile climb. I decided to just run this one on the flatter roads by my house. It was 44 degrees and raining a little but mostly pretty lightly which felt like perfect conditions once I was warmed up. I did the first 2 miles warmup at 7:45 AP. Then I ran a 4 mile course 3 times with 2 short breaks of 2 or 3 minutes in between. I was hoping for anything between 6:50 and 7:10 pace and didn't want to feel like I was pushing to hard. I averaged 6:52 on the first 4 miles. 6:44 on the second and 6:39 on the 3rd. 6:45 ave for the 12 miles of tempo and 6:54 for all 14. I was quite surprised at how comfortable the pace felt. Normally my intended MP before a marathon feels much harder to me. This run gives me a lot more confidence going into the marathon next week. Now my main worry is my lack of overall mileage and long runs. That could make that last 6 or 8 miles pretty tough. It would be nice to have gotten in at least four or more 60 or 70 mile weeks at this point. I guess I'll have to settle for 39,45,50,and 55 miles over the past 4 weeks and then teens and low 20s for 5 weeks before that. I've been adding in 3 or 4 hours of cycling a week so hopefully that will help. Felt real good about this run. Just wish I had time for a couple more like it before the marathon.
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