[S]he Conquers Who Endures

18 mile long run on the Chicago lakefront with my old training partner! We were planning a more conservative pace (8:30s min/mi) and then planned on kicking it into her marathon pace (8:05s min/mi) for the last 8 or so miles. We got to chatting away like normal and didn't pay attention to the pace. We noticed a couple 7:45s splits, and tried to slow down the pace but apparently it was a comfortable pace for both of us. Heading back into the city we turned into the nasty, 15 MPH head wind for the last 6 or 7 miles. It felt like we were running 9:00s min/mi heading back, but somehow we maintained the same pace? I finished with AP of 7:53 min/mi for 18 miles. Shoot! I thought I needed to slow this long run down because my last 20 and 16 miler were around this pace and I thought I'm pushing too hard. I have no idea how we maintained this pace in such a strong head wind for so long. Once again, I'm glad for the wind, if I can't have hills to make me stronger, I'll take the wind resistance!!

After my run, I got the detailed results for my video gait analysis. She saw a lot of improvement on a few of my flaws from last summer. She pointed out some additional things I need to work on. I'm pretty excited about that because fixing those flaws will keep me injury free and probably will make me faster. The biggest thing is my heel strike. She did notice an improvement from a couple of weeks ago, but recommends I work into a more minimal shoe. Haha! Good thing I got the Kinvaras and Gridtype A5s!! I'm busting out my Brooks Pure Flow again. However, I just ordered more Pegs for the Big Sur. I'm really confused about what shoes to wear for that now! Hopefully I can work up my lower leg strength by then to wear the more minimal shoe for the marathon, and I think I should return the Pegs.