Long Run - 20 miles (32 km.)

Today was relatively cool. The temperature when I started running at 7:00 am was around 14 degrees C. and it warmed up to about 18 degrees by the time I finished near 10 am. But the sun managed to stay behind the clouds. There was a light breeze coming from the south when I started, which turned into a fairly stiff breeze from the south by the time I finished.

My target pace was 30 seconds/mile slower than race pace or 8:20/mi. (5:12/km) for the first 24 km, and then race pace (7:50/mi, 4:52/km) for the last 8 km. Here is how the splits looked:

5:10
5:09
5:09
5:10
5:11
5:12
5:10
5:08
5:08
5:07
5:09
5:10
5:09
5:11
5:10
5:07
5:05
5:07
5:07
5:06
5:07
5:05
5:09
5:07
4:45
4:51
4:50
4:52
4:54
4:58
4:53
4:42
4:32 (200 m.)

I had a tough time on a couple of the latter 'fast' laps as I was heading directly into the stiff breeze, which had a significant effect on time and effort. Once I turned the corner, though, I was able to get back into my rhythm and ramp up the pace for the last 1.2 km.

I took a 2-3 minute break every 8 km, roughly, to get some water, dry off and, at the last stop, eat a peach.

Overall, quite a good run. Muscles are sore, which is good.