20.26 mi, 2:44:43, 8:08 avg, elev gain 271 feet (Strava says 489 feet)
I don't normally run 20 miles on consecutive weeks but wanted to get two in for this training cycle. Schedule called for rolling hills, which I'd normally go up to Brooksville to find. I decided to stay in the area. I couldn't do an out and back and stay in anything resembling rolling hills, so I picked a loop which I thought could work and get the job done in about 3 loops. Ran south out of Westlake, left onto Nebraska for a brief distance then continue south on Belcher to Tampa Road, then head west to Omaha Street all the way up to Alderman and then east towards the north entrance of Westlake. It was basically the same each time but I made some small adjustments - one time going through Indian Trails, other times making some small detours here or there, but basically stuck to the course.
It was cool enough than I was fine running with a 10oz bottle which I refilled at stops back at the house. Overall the run went really well. This was probably my best Palm Harbor long run so far.
First 9 miles called for an easy pace, which I averaged around an 8:45. After the 9 miles, I felt kind of locked into the pace and didn't feel like I could go faster but was supposed to run the next 9 miles at about a 7:30 pace. But, when I had to I was able to switch gears and run in the 7:30's (mid to high 7:30's for first 6 miles), then 7:26, followed by last two of the faster miles at 7:15. Each of the faster miles felt like I couldn't do it, but stuck with a mantra of just one more. As I was finishing up the 8th mile ahead of pace I knew the 9th mile would be no problem.
Was about a mile from the house when I finished the 9th faster mile for 18 total, was just over 19 miles once near the house so ran a small 1 mile loop near the house.
Glad there were only three loops - not enough to get boring and each loop didn't feel so long after finishing the first one.
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