20 Days to Marathon #GameOnPGH!


Let's start with last weekend, I ran 20 painful awful kms and was ready to give up on all upcoming races.  It took me a really long time.


There was a large hail shower shortly after I got in, so at least my timing was good.  I decided to do something about energy (or lack of) and managed to have a healthy shake every day until this weekend.  I got my speed repeats in but skipped strength training until I could see the chiro and get my hip/knee looked at. It's been quite painful.


This has been one of the toughest marathon training cycles I've ever had, so many awful long runs.  I have managed to tough them out, but you have to question what good a 3 hour 20k is doing you when thinking of race day.

Based on that I ended up splitting my 20 mile long into 2 race pace runs this weekend -  a 15 mile and  a 10 mile.  


I was surprised to find I could run almost all of the 15 mile under a 7 min/km pace.  There's a large hill that bumps up my time and also provides some awesome training toward the end.  This is huge progress, I couldn't even complete the Half I ran in March at this pace and it was flat.


The weather was also beautiful which just capped off a really good day that I badly needed.


I wanted to complete another 10 miles the next day, I wasn't sure if it would be back to the norm but happily again I was able to run a decent pace.  It was colder but the snow held off until I was done.  


Although I'm concerned I didn't get that 20 miler done (it feels like a fail), I actually enjoyed 2 competent runs this weekend and I think that's pretty amazing.  I enjoyed running again!  I had a lot of time on my feet for the 100k in Feb so I'm giving myself a break.  Last year I ran two 20 milers for Pittsburgh.  It will be interesting to see what happens in the race this year.

In spring is sorta here news, Prairie Crocus are coming out on the ridge, hope the overnight snow didn't upset them.


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