AM- Long run with Walter, who thankfully came into town. We met at 5:15 am at the bottom of Blacksmith Fork and drove up to about mile 10 of TOU (ended up being exactly mile 10, which is pretty good since the mile markers are gone). Ran up to the start in exactly 1:15:00 (7:30 pace), though my legs and achilles started hurting at mile 7- that wasn't a good sign for the coming speedwork. Filled up the water bottle. I didn't have any granola bars or gu's at home, so I made my own concoction of marshmallows and almonds. We ate some at this point- it was actually pretty good and a nice energy boost. Then we ran back to the car- goal was about MP (6:00 pace or so), though I would have been happy with 6:15-6:30 given the way my legs felt. Averaged 6:13/mile for the first 6, though we were still semi-conversational so not going too hard. Mile 7 was a slow 6:27 (a bit uphill, plus I think we were getting tired). But the seeing the slow mile helped us kick it into gear, finishing with a 6:03, 5:53 and 5:51. It feels good to do 5:50 pace at the end of a long run. 6:09 avg pace for the way down. Dropped Walter off, then I added 3 more miles on Hollow Road. Total of 23 miles in 2:40:20 (6:58 pace).
This is my first 100 mile week ever, but it was easier than my first 93+ mile weeks last year- my legs have adjusted pretty well. And although my achilles is sore and my legs are tired, my legs are definitely much less tired and sore today then they were after Monday's crazy trail run. It was a very hard run last Monday, that's for sure. Good week- 100 miles, plus 1 BW, 1 BTW, and 1 long run with speed. I'm off to Florida again next week, so my mileage might drop a bit.
Thanks for getting up so early and running with me, Walter- it was very nice not to have to run alone. And for the record, we only had 600 ft elevation drop in the first 10 miles of the marathon. | 