20 mile run
Yesterday I ran 20 miles, the longest run yet of my marathon training and my longest run ever. My pace was slower than usual — about 8:49 min/mile. Total time running, including short water breaks at drinking fountains along the bike trail, was 2:56 and change. I feel sore but don’t seem to have injured anything, so that’s good.
There are about 7 weeks to go before the training. I plan to run a 30K (18.6 mile) race on November 9 and a 10K on Thanksgiving morning. I still have to do a couple more long runs over the next 5 weeks, before I taper. Maybe even more importantly, I have to do more tempo runs. I tried one on Thursday, but I didn’t hold a fast enough pace and it ended up more like a marathon-pace run (7:30 min/mile). Tuesday is another interval workout with my running group, so I’ll have an opportunity to test my speed then.
Right now my fitness training is focused almost entirely on running. I haven’t gone to the gym to work out in perhaps two months, my longest hiatus in almost three years. I also haven’t lost weight. I’m going to give myself a break on other things until after the marathon, and then I’ll refocus on total body exercising and fitness. In the meantime I am doing some pushups, but still nowhere near as much upper body exercise as before.
Total running mileage this last week: 40 miles, a bit under where I wanted to be because I only ran 4 days.
October 20, 2008 at 9:14 pm
What did you do for energy during your run? The 30K should be a wonderful test. My local running club runs a 30K in September, but I was unprepared to run it. Good luck. You seem to be on track. Perhaps you could add some core work 2-3X a week.