Last Saturday presented my final long run before Chicago. I had a goal of between 22M and 24M, depending on how things were going (and whether drunken students messed with my hydration).
I awoke at 4:30am to begin my run at 6am, but was thwarted by my Garmin (pbtn), who had decided that a blank screen would be all I got regardless of the frequency or ferocity with which I pushed the on/off button. Fortunately for me, after consulting an awesome friend who had experienced a similar problem, I found my Garmin bible (read: owners manual) and was able to reset it and begin my run by 6:30am.
The weather was perfect and I proceeded to pound out some awesome miles. I felt so good in fact that I decided to rock the 23rd and 24th miles. I went home, ate a yogurt and then bought two McDonald’s sausage and egg muffins. Delicious. Healthy. Wonderful.
But, such good long runs are never for free, and I paid for it today on my 8 800s. For the official first day of fall I was greeted with 82 degree temps with some humidity to boot. *Thank Running Gods* They were a struggle, going 2:49, 2:49, 2:51, 2:53, 2:51, 2:56, 3:05, 2:59. Yep, I lost all hope and desire during that 7th repeat. Oh well, I responded pretty well on my last.
I am now in full taper mode. I only hope I can keep it together.
December / 2013 Recap and The End
10 years ago
8 comments:
Spike, you make me laugh! The old RTFM trick ... works a treat and is often the last resort for us blokes.
Glad your last big run was such a success. It feels good to get them out of the way. What was your expected pace for the 800's? I found in the early part of my FIRST program that I ran the first couple of reps so hard trying to make the target time that I was stuffed for the remaining ones.
And what time are you targeting for the marathon. This set is close to the "Yasso 800's" so I'd imagine you expect to run around 2.55 or so?
Not much to go now!
Cheers, PB :-)
You are doing so well. 24 miles, wow! Legs will feel fresh after the taper - btw, who does 3 miles of speed during taper? We do!
You've got this! BQ here comes Spike!!! 17 more days!
Way to go Spike!
You're lucky we're friends. Not many people would appreciate being woken up at 5:54 am on a Saturday. However, I was glad to help out a fellow runner, even if my advice was only semi-coherent and consisted mostly of "Set it down and speak sternly to it."
And yeah, WTF, "Fall"? It was 82 degrees yesterday.
24 miles and still finish in time to go home and then go back out to McDonalds in time for their breakfast menu? Well done, sir. Well done, indeed.
Good work on your 24 miler!
Bring on taper time!
Yeah, taper! What's up! We're almost there, buddy ;)
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