Sunday, August 1, 2010

Looong Run... truncated

Saturday called for a 20 mile long run, which felt like it would be a challenge under most circumstances; but, with an important soccer game on Friday night and an injured quad it was looking downright brutal.
On the bright side we won our soccer game 1-0. On the dark side I ended up playing the whole game as a few injuries to others and a number of guys not able to make it meant a short bench and I tweaked my quad further. Back to the run...

Critter and I got started a little later then preferred (she was late) but the weather was pretty cool all things considered. We have both been struggling with our pace and not running too quick for our goals on long and recovery runs. The garmin helped me to keep track and while we didn't hit the higher end of the pace range like I was hoping, we did typically stay in the mid range. The first part of the run felt okay and my legs didn't feel too heavy. It was about to change though...

Miles 10-12 were okay although in an area I hate running because 1) just more hills on an already pretty hilly run 2) there is nothing to look at. As we were coming up to the hilliest section of our run we got stopped at a traffic light and while it wasn't a terribly long wait, as we began running again my legs felt the effort and were tired. The hills last for roundabout 3 miles and I knew I was not making the full 20. So, at mile 16 Critter and I split... I ran fairly directly home finishing at 18.2 miles.