Sunday, February 7, 2010

Peaceful Easy Feeling. Peaceful Easy Running?

Marathon Plan - Regressive Countdown - Week Thirteen
02/01/10 - 02/07/10 - Week Total: 33 miles

This week I ran my first 20-miler of the season. I decided not to watch my pace and have a peaceful easy feeling, courtesy of Eagles via My iPod. And though hard to believe, I watched the pace only a handful of times. That gave me freedom.

When I hit mile 10 (
I know the course by heart, and know where every mile mark is) I decided to watch my time: 1:56:00, for an 11:36 min/mile. Good pace for my long run and I was feeling good.

Now, the next 10 miles proved to be different. I started to feel it, and to slow down. At mile 15 I was in 3:01 hours, pace now averaged 12:04. In this portion of my run, I had two pit stops: one, my husband saw me running and pulled over and offered me a bottle of lemon-lime water. I drank half a bottle. Half a mile later I wanted to puke and now I pulled myself over... from there I felt my pace dramatically going down but I pushed and persevered to finish my run. My motto: "Lizzie, just cover the distance, no matter the speed. It is the first 20-miler and you have 12 weeks to go!!!"

I finish my run in 4:03 for a 12:10 min/mile - which was not that bad considering it still was within the range on my long runs pace.

The initial Peaceful Easy Feeling didn't convey a Peaceful Easy Running. Neither my feelings nor my running were peaceful let alone easy. What 20-miler is?


3 comments:

ShirleyPerly said...

Your first 20-miler in a while is going to be hard. Sounds like the lemon-lime water did not help, though!!

MarathonChris said...

Way to hang in there with the 20 miler. You were exactly right....just get it done and take it easy!

Petraruns said...

Lizzie Lee - 20 milers are hard! Let up on yourself - they don't ever seem to be getting easier for me.

As for you doing a 30K - congrats! I think they're great training.

hope all is going well for you LL.