Week 9 -- Long Run

I did my long run this morning. Eight almonds and one piece of dark chocolate (no water) got me through this one--11.2 miles. Recently, I started thinking about my marathon race pace and experimented with it for the last two miles of this morning's run. I ran the first 9.2 miles at 9:36 pace and the last two (rolling hills) at 8:37 pace (this is slightly understated, but I tend to err on the side of conservativeness), which felt comfortable, even after having run 9.2 miles. However, I don't know that I could maintain that pace over 26.2 miles. BUT (the big but), I'll have to if I plan to take $75 of Dan Britton's money, which, I--and I think most that know Dan--know, is the epitome of what's sacred.

Not surprisingly, Tuesday's and today's runs were of a better quality than that of Wednesday's and yesterday's, both of which were on zero days of rest and tired (new pain in right knee). I think that at this point in my marathon training, midweek runs on zero days of rest aren't worth as much as my longer quality run on Tuesday and my long run on Saturday. I think I'd benefit more by resting every other day and concentrating on longer runs, adding a few more miles to my longest runs instead of running them as midweek shorter runs. Dan, I think your plan uses this logic and, of course, emphasizes XTing, which, since DAY 1, I've done little of.

I've come to value rest and running on softer surfaces. The most tempting thing these days is a strip of grass. Who would have thought it?

Onward.