I'm liking the longer runs.

I did 6 miles in 44:30 today and while I'm happy with my speed, I find I'm happier when I slow down and go 8, 10, or even 12 miles on run during the middle of the week. I just feel like I'm accomplishing more, doing my body good to prepare for the marathon.

 

So, yeah, I'm jazzed that I could hold a sub 7:30 pace for six miles while keeping my heart rate below 85 percent maximum for all but three minutes of the run. I'm jazzed about running the last 5k of a 7 mile run on Tuesday in 21:36.

 

But I felt much more of an accomplishment about Wednesday's 10-mile run. It wasn't fast. Or swift, There was not one mile completed in faster than 8 minutes, but at the end, I felt like I could have run 10 more miles. And isnt that what marathon training is about? Training your body to go 26.2. I'm finding out that I like being out there for an hour or more, and I look forward to my 2- to 3-hour long runs on the weekend. It's like I havent even done anything unless I've run double digits for the day.

 

I'm up to 31 miles this week. I've got a 20-miler Saturday, which will put me at 51 for the week, my first 50-mile week since training for White Rock. Im going to take it slow and easy not worry so much about speed. I just wanna feel like I could go another 6.2 miles at the end of the 20-miler Saturday. I wanna feel like my blogging buddies Derek and Ryan, who both run 20-milers as easily as most of us run 10-milers. Ryan, for Christ's sakes, just finishing running a 100k race, and Derek has a 50-miler coming up in a few weeks. Another blogging buddy, Lindsay, raced a half marathon in 1:34 and then raced a marathon the very next day in 4:04 at the Goofy Challenge.

 

So, I may never be crazy enough to do those kinds of things. But, if I can build my endurance, maybe my next marathon won't end in the death march of my previous three.