Pre- Long Run Run

Happy Friday All! I am so ready for the weekend it is not even funny! This a long post, so beware!

After my post yesterday, I got slammed at work, made it to class just in time, and proceeded to watch my brain turn to mush in the hour and 15 minutes I was there. I was so brain dead by the time I left to head home, that I knew no matter where I tried I was not going to have a decent run, so I went home, had dinner and went to bed at such a ridiculous hour I am even too ashamed to mention it.

Obviously that means I got up and did yesterday's run today- so much better! I am so glad I didn't push it last night, I had a good run today, and I really do prefer to run in the morning, especially now that it is not obscenely hot at 5am!


I needed to do 7 easy miles, and I really focused on keeping them slow and easy since I have a long run looming for tomorrow morning. I have pretty much avoided running at all costs on the day before my long run up until recently, but as much running as I have done at this point, I know when I need to keep it easy, and I have found myself needing fewer and fewer rest days for physical reasons, mostly from mental colapse do I find myself skipping a run- like yesterday. I made sure I took the time to stretch really well after my run so as to not have any lingering tightness tomorrow, but I almost feel more excited now.

7 Miles-  1:07:04, 9:34 pace
Mile 1-  9:44
Mile 2-  9:40
Mile 3-  9:35
Mile 4-  9:38
Mile 5-  9:30
Mile 6-  9:26
Mile 7-  9:31


Today's run went really well, like really well. It was slow, but it was supposed to be. I still hung in my goal marathon pace range for most of the run, and I found it feeling so easy, I was actually questioning if I was even accomplishing anything since my heart rate was so low. Again, some race confidence building here, which is alwasy welcomed. It was nice to have a run where I could just go, and not have to stop once for water, at the end of an itnerval, to stretch, or even to turn around. I feel like so many of my runs have been choppy lately, all broken up into parts for one reason or another, and it was nice to just go, and keep going.

I did a lot of thinking about the marathon this morning. About how close it is (5 weeks now), what all I still need to do, what I need to stop doing, how its almost that time to lay out my final race plan, how my taper is starting really soon, and what I would do differently the next time. It has been really fun following all the other bloggers training for the 10/10 race weekend this week, and that this is their final long run weekend, it leaves me excited to get to that point.

After tomorrow, I will be 1 run closer to the race, and over a pretty big hurdle that has been staring me in the face since training began...