Sunday, March 18, 2012

3 long runs left!

Today I finished my second 22 miler. That means I have 3 longs runs left- 1 x 22 & 2 X 24. Hooray for that! A little tiny bit frightened about the 24 milers...never had a 24 mile training run before....

The day did not start off good. I woke up later than I had wanted which meant I had to head out the door without breakfast. BIG. BAD. HUGE. MISTAKE. Typically on long run days I get out of bed around 8:00 am, drink my coffee & eat a bowl of oatmeal. I usually do some stuff around the house while waking up and letting my breakfast settle. Getting out the door between 9:00-9:30 am is average. Getting up, rushing around and running within 15 minutes of waking up is not normal. I had to get out the door no later than 7:30 am so that I would have time to make it to my husband's first spring football game. There was no way I was running 22 miles in the afternoon!

Miles 1-2 were supposed to be easy miles with a target pace of 8:00- 8:30. I felt like I was struggling. My legs felt heavy. I wasn't feeling it. I was hungry!

Miles 2-5 were miles at my threshold pace of 6:40-6:55. I immediately hit a 6:43 pace and then struggled to maintain it. Crap. This is not going well. I really struggled. Nothing felt right. Ended up with a 6:47 pace. Not too shabby for how crappy I felt.

Miles 5-17 were more easy miles at 8:00- 8:30. I had to stop twice and stretch out my calves because they were so tight. I mean really tight. At this point I was just acting like a drama queen and figured it would take me 5 hours to get my run finished. I was cold. I was hungry and becoming cranky. I actually texted my hubby the second time I stopped to stretch and told him if I wasn't home by the time he left for his game, I promised I would be there by 12:00 pm.

Miles 17-20 was another set at threshold pace of 6:40- 6:55. At this point I knew I could do it. Piece of cake. I dug deep and found another gear and actually felt pretty good. Kept a 6:44 pace for this set.

Miles 20-22 were more easy miles at 8:00- 8:30. I ran this way faster than my target pace, partially because I was tired of running and wanted to get warm and get food.

Overall time was 2:47:44, 7:37 pace. I was surprised when I saw my splits and happy that I stuck it out and found another gear. I had plenty of time to inhale my breakfast, make some coffee, take a super hot shower and make it to my hubby's game. Looks like I should be getting the "Wife of the Year" award!!!!

My total miles for the week: 50


I found this on pinterest the other day. Thought that it captured 99% of the reasons why I run. 

Questions for you:

Did anyone do anything fun over the weekend?

Have any races or great workouts?

Celebrate St. Patty's day? 

--Tasha

4 comments:

  1. Great job with your twenty two miles! i have a twenty miler coming up this weekend am a little intimidated.
    I took my kids to a parade yesterday and today they got to play at the park while I raced.

    Now I am playing with my new iPad

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  2. Jealous about the new iPad! I really want one. It sounds like you and your family had a fun weekend. I can't wait to hear the official race results!

    You will do great on your 20 miler! It isn't much further than the 18 you did a couple of weeks ago. Once you hit 18 miles, its less than a 5k. :-)

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  3. nice job on the 22 miler, you are so going to kill the marathon. Even though you felt bad, you stuck through it like a champ. You already read how my weekend was :) have a good week!

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  4. Good job -- You're going to be awesome! :D

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