•8:13 PM
Oh my goodness - I cannot tell you just how awesome my 20-miler was today. The weather was GLORIOUS - absolutely PERFECT running weather. A bit of a wind coming across the lake ... went back to my old standby run around the lake in Wakefield.
It was crawling with couples & families walking their dogs & children in baby strollers - a lot to navigate on the sidewalk, so for the most part I stuck to the road. Anyway, I had such a moment of clarity today. It just felt like everything clicked. My mind cleared, just like the skies, of all the clutter & chaos ... it was so calm and serene - at least in my mind it was! Awwww ... I long for these kind of runs. They really aren't usually this good. So when it happens I relish in it. In fact, I'm still riding the high almost 2 hours later! While my time would still put me at just a hair over 5 hours (assuming I maintained my pace for the last 10k of the marathon), it just felt good. Could it have had something to do with my new runners? OMG, seriously people - these are the. best. runners. EVER. I always thought I would be an Asics girl forever. But not so much anymore. The Hubs and I took a trip to Dick's Sporting Goods store (which, by the way has become my 2nd fav store behind Barnes & Noble!) yesterday to get my Asics 2150s ... I tried 'em on, loved 'em, and the Hubs asked why I wasn't getting the $140 runners that he saw on the wall. I told him that I never even considered spending that much - $100 for runners is hard enough to cough up (but understandably I now understand that it is an investment well worth spending the $$ for). So in the end I compared my 2150s with various competitors on the market - Saucony, Nike, New Balance ... and ... (drum roll please) ...
Let me introduce you to my new best friend: Brooks Adrenaline GTS 10. Wow. That's all I have to say. So of course I had to immediately wear them in today on my 20-miler, I am soooo glad that I did. It a run that was lightyears both physically & psychologically from last week's run. I am extremely impressed by the cushioning and arch support - and they're really quite a light shoe ... I cannot speak highly enough of this runner. Wow!
Anyway, back to my run. I always chuckle when I write about a "great" 20 mile run, as if there isn't such a thing, but again today I proved that proper preparation and attitude are the ingredients for a great long run. I wrote last weekend about how the long run was not treating me well and decided to change my approach as I headed into the weekend. Here are the changes I made:
- got a good night's sleep (that's always important regardless of the distance)
- slept in, didn't stress over not getting up super early
- made homemade waffles to get some extra carbs in before the run (the fuel you put in your body prior to the run is truly key in my opinion)
- changed my course to a very familiar, always fun run around the lake - this allowed me to park my car right alongside the lake so I didn't have to carry anything with me (still dealing with the chafing of my fuel belt on my lower back from last weekend)
- I paced myself properly (not so much right from the start - my first two miles I was so excited to be out enjoying the nice weather by the water that I went out too quickly - but you can't fault em, right?) My overall pace was 11:38 min/mile - not too bad overall
- I absolutely KILLED the massive hill that I ran up (note that I did not say, "walked up"!) at mile 17 (this is right around the time that I will hit the first of the 3 main Newton hills, culminating in Heartbreak Hill, in the Boston Marathon so I thought this would provide a good feel for where I am at physically & mentally after having run 17 miles already
Anyway, here are my splits today:
Mile 1: 10:28
Mile 2: 10:52
Mile 3: 11:07
Mile 4: 11:16
Mile 5: 11:01
Mile 6: 11:14
Mile 7: 12:03
Mile 8: 11:09
Mile 9: 11:13
Mile 10: 12:24
Mile 11: 11:27
Mile 12: 11:01
Mile 13: 12:46
Mile 14: 11:36
Mile 15: 11:48
Mile 16: 12:57
Mile 17: 12:08
Mile 18: 12:59
Mile 19: 11:44
Mile 20: 11:29
You can check out the map of my run, elevation, etc. here (note that it looks like I just ran around the lake once - nope, actually it was a total of 6 times around!):
Okay, off to watch the Oscars now!!!
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