S5H. T=45 degrees. Jogged slowly alone for 2 miles. Ran 18 miles group run with water stops at every 3 miles: First 3 miles at 8:30” pace (too fast for warm up pace). Next 12 miles at MGP 7:50”-8:00” pace. Mostly at 7:50” pace. Jogged very slowly the last 3 miles to cool down. Pluses: Good long training run. Ran the last 18 miles of the new Marathon course. Mostly flat, some down hills. Finished 3 miles warm up and 12 miles MGP work out with the group. Ran with 3:30’ Marathon trainees. Met Colin who is the official pacer for 3:30’ Marathon group. Minuses: Poor preparation both physically and mentally: Didn’t take the run seriously. The original plan was to run 18 continuous MGP miles but then they changed the plan to 3 miles warm up, 12 miles at MGP, and 3 miles cool down with 1-2 minutes water breaks at every 3 miles. And I thought it’s an easier run since I’ve done some harder runs than this. Didn’t get enough sleep. Didn’t hydrate well the days before the long run. No GU. Four hard workouts in a row from Monday to Wednesday. I've never done that before! I was not fully recovered even after taking Thursday and Friday off. The first 11 MGP miles was mostly at medium effort, legs felt a little bit tired but not too bad. The last mile of the 12 MGP miles was pretty hard. It was hilly and everyone was speeding up. I was breathing hard, my legs felt dead tired, and I really wanted to slow down. Most of the people in 3:30’ group seems doing extremely well compared to me. And I can't wait for another rematch (=: I ran the last 3 miles cool down by myself since it was painfully slow. I was SO glad that I didn’t have to run the last 3 miles at MGP. I promise to myself that next time I will treat any 20 milers with proper respect!!! | 