Did a long run today, the last formal long run before Boston! (I am doing race next weekend). My legs were feeling fatigued this morning from the week, and it was foggy and cold outside, with an inch of new snow everywhere. I was not looking forward to hammering out a long run. I finally got enough inertia to get in my car at about 11AM and drive out to Hollow Rd, to do an out-and-back up Blacksmith Fork Canyon. Mysteriously, the fog stopped at about Providence, and it was beautiful in Hyrum and Nibley with no snow. When I looked back, there was just a black cloud over the northern half of the valley. It was kind of like looking at Mordor from the Shire. I had a light canyon headwind for the first 8 miles, and then it shifted (as it often does by mid-day), and gave me a tailwind for the last 3 miles of uphill. Then I had a headwind for most of the way down. But it was fairly mild, thankfully. It ended up being an awesome run, despite how bad I felt earlier on, and despite dealing with a headwind in both directions. My legs started feeling decent once I got going, then just got in a rhythm on the 11 miles of uphill and kept increasing the pace. By Mile 8, I was hitting sub-6. Coming back down for the final 11 miles, I just tried to keep it solid. Nothing too crazy, but hold a brisk pace. I made a potty stop at Mile 13, and also took some shot blocks there. From a fueling standpoint, the whole 22 miles felt great, much improvement in my long runs over the last month. I ended up dong the 22 miles in 2:10:24 (5:55/mile average). Averaged 6:15/mile on the uphill, and 5:40/mile on the downhill. Hit a few under 5:30 here and there. Splits were 6:42, 6:24, 6:33, 6:39, 6:20, 6:20, 6:04, 5:59, 5:57, 6:02, 5:44, (turnaround), 5:50, 5:36, 5:42, 5:28, 5:46, 5:31, 5:19, 5:22, 5:40, 5:39, 5:26. 98 miles for the week, my peak for training. Next week will still be hard (low 90s), and then the two-week taper.
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