20 miler part 2

Yesterday I went for an easy 6 miles at about 7 minute pace. Today I went out and did the same 19.76 mile loop that I did last weekend. I decided to go today instead of tomorrow because the weather is awesome today and tomorrow the forecast has 100% chance of rain. I felt better this week then last week. My muscles in my legs weren't screaming at me as loudly around mile 17 as they were last week. As an experiment again, around mile 15 today, instead of taking a gel i tried some of the clif shot blocks. They basically taste like fruit snacks. They went down a lot easier then the gel last week, except right around mile 17.5 I got a horrible stomach cramp, which honestly I think was from the clif blocks. I tried to run through it, but it got the best of me and I had to walk for about a minute or so for it to go away. Once it was gone I made it home the rest of the way no problem. All said and done, 2 hours and 23 minutes. A little faster then last week. About a 7:14 pace...right where I need to be if I want to make the 3:10:00 cut in the marathon.

7 mile hard long run

I took yesterday off. My body needed it. Today i went for my 6.9 mile loop through dumbo and fort greene. I did it in 44:40 for a pace of 6:28/mile. Up until about mile 5 I was feeling pretty exhausted, but I also didn't realize I was running that fast, so it makes sense I was so tired. After that I did about a mile real slow for a cooldown to get in 8 miles total for the day

6.83 long run

Not too long, not too short. My legs felt like cement though. Maybe I really should take tomorrow off. Went over the brooklyn bridge and then back over the manhattan bridge to come home. I picked up the pace considerably on the inclines of both bridges and took both the first and last mile of the run pretty easy. Did it in 44:55 for a 6:34 pace.

Also, as I was running across the brooklyn bridge, i got thinking. I wonder how many tourist have pictures that they are taking of their kids or significant others, where in the background they can see my skinny, shirtless, sweaty, bearded self running by. I like to think lots of them.

4 mile recovery run

alright. so i lied yesterday when i said i wasn't going to run today. i got home from work and i didn't feel like sitting on the couch, so i went out for a real easy 4 miles. my legs were sore from yesterday, but surprisingly i felt really good. giddyup.

20 mile long run

Yesterday I went on an easy short run of 4 miles to recover from friday's workout and to prep me for today's longrun. That gave me about 51 miles for last week.

Today I embarked on a 20 mile longrun, or actually it was only 19.76 according to mapmyrun, but I'm gonna round up because it sounds a lot more awesome when you say you went for a 20 mile run. I went from carroll gardens up through williamsburg and greenpoint, over the pulaski bridge into queens. Then I went over the Queensboro Bridge and ran along 59th street to the west side highway where I went down to chambers, cut over to the brooklyn bridge and home. I did it in about 2 hours and 26 minutes which about a 7:23/mile pace.

Overall I felt ok. Usually on my long long runs I will take a water bottle with me, but today just for the hell of it I decided to take one of those Gu gel packets with me. I ate the gu around mile 15 and I don't know if it actually helped me finish my run or not, but when you have been running for almost 2 hours and you are sweating and beyond tired and all you want is to stop and drink something cold and sleep forever, it is pretty disgusting to ingest something which can only be compared to consuming warm paste. If I didn't have water on me, I think I would have been screwed.

Most of the run I felt alright as I said. Around mile 18 though, right after I got over the brooklyn bridge back into brooklyn, much to my regret I let the exhaustion in my legs get the best of me and I stopped to walk about 200 meters and stop at a water fountain. Other then that, i think everything was okay. I got home and drank a ton of chocolate milk and gatorade and ate some bread and string cheese and took a 30 minute shower. Then I headed to Jon's house to watch the Bears beat the Steelers and drink a bunch of beer and eat some hot dogs and hamburgers.

Tomorrow = rest day.

interval day - 9 miles total

I took the day off yesterday. My back has been bugging me since sunday and i figured it was in my best interest to take a day of rest. So I rested by watching a bunch of Mad Men on dvd with Eleanor and then we ate a ton of pork ribs for dinner that her roommates dad sent. Pretty awesome day.

Today I went for an easy 2 mile warmup, then headed down to the track in Red Hook where I did 6 x 800m repeats with a 400 m recovery jog in between each interval. I did the first 5 at about 2:43-2:46 and then the final one at about 2:37. Easy 2.5 mile cooldown for about 9 miles total for the day.

10.7 mile longrun

so, i meant to go out for a nice long tempo run today, but like an idiot i just ended up running the whole run really hard. i know i'm not supposed to do that, but too late now. i put in 10.7 miles in 1 hour 10 minutes and 15 seconds for an approximate pace of 6:34/mile. blood and thunder came on the old ipod and i couldn't help but play it 3 times in a row. i blame mastodon for my running harder then i should have today.