Monday, August 6, 2007

The Pendulum Swings Again...

...this time to the side that says, "I don't know if I can do a BQ pace for a full 26.2 miles!" Today I just ran on my own. Looking to do 9 miles or so, I set off on my run late in the morning. And while my first mile felt good, by the time I was into miles 7 and 8, the heat was starting to take its toll.

The good news is that I was able to set my pace (8:30/mile) and stick pretty close to it. In fact, my overall pace for the entire 9.27 mile run was 8:29/mile. Now, that included two stops where Jenny and Tori checked on me at the 6 mile mark and had a towel with which I could dry my face, and then another stop where Jenny showed up on her bike with some cold water and cold Gatorade with about a mile to go. But even excluding those two stops, the GPS had me between 8:20 and 8:30 for most of the miles I did.

One thing for sure, though: I hope it is cold out the day of the marathon. While the temperature today started at around 70 degrees F. (21 C.) it must have climbed to 80 F (27 C.) by the time I finished. It certainly seemed that way, anyhow. And the air was humid, which didn't help.

I was drenched in sweat when I was done, and I spent about a half hour in the shower afterwards pouring as cold water as I could get all over me. Oh, and the cold beer helped to cool down my insides as well.

A 180 degree reversal from yesterday's run.

This coming week has me doing speed work on Wednesday, a long run (20 miles) on Saturday and then we're going in a local race (8k) on Sunday. Hmmmmm... should be interesting!

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