18.39 mi, 2:34:00, 8:23 avg
Big run for the week, not completely according to pace/distance goals but not that far off and a step up from the usual 15ish long runs.
Goal was 2 mile warm up, 3x(4@marathon goal pace, 2 easy) for a total of 20 miles.
Woke up just after 6:00 but was closer to 6:30 by the time I actually got out of bed. Headed to Starkey Blvd, dropping off small drink cooler at Aristida entrance. Did the two mile warm up in Longleaf. Saw Daisy and Leah finishing up their runs just as I was about to start the faster miles, said hi to them for a few minutes. Got going on the Starkey Blvd and then ran into Jenny and said hi to her briefly. Started again and without too much difficulty was on pace to run in the 7:30's. I'd hit the entrance to Aristida about 2.7 miles into the 4 mile MP section, turn down the street and go far enough on the sidestreet so I'd finish, run a little bit easy and grab a refresh for my handheld drink bottle (was carrying just one 10oz bottle). Temperature was no longer cool but a little bit warm with the usual Florida early fall humidity (not much different from Florida late summer humidity).
First section MP miles: 7:34, 7:37, 7:40, 7:40
Finished the two easy mile section and was now inside Starkey Park. Decided I'd run three miles of the faster segment before turning back to do the 4th mile which would put me by one of the park's water coolers. There was a water cooler at the turn around, so I decided to stop just in case the other one did not have any water, so this segment was not done non-stop. I did have a lot more energy after the brief stop. The second set had been going in survival mode where I wasn't forcing myself to stay in the 7:30's, just whatever I could do to stay under 8:00
Second section MP miles: 7:53, 7:48, 7:48, 7:24
Two more miles easy and I was almost out of the park, then just 4 more of the harder miles. Heat was getting to me, wanted to just jog it home from here, but as a compromise, did one more fast mile and then was going to do the last two miles faster after taking it easy for a mile. Did the faster mile, then an easy mile and grabbed some ice from my cooler and drink top off. Changed plan again to just one more fast mile followed by jog back to the start.
So, what was supposed to be 4 more miles at marathon goal pace turned into:
7:28, 9:06, (0.75@)9:30, 7:22, (0.64@7:55)
And the 20 mile run turned out to be 18.39 miles.
But it did wrap up my biggest training month since March (and the march miles are counting the 33 1/3 mile and 50 mile ultra races).
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