Hamstring Treatment - Week 15 - 15 Mile Long Run to Lucan and Back, and then around the block

Today, Coach Brian was running the Really Chilly 10k in London. I chose to skip that race, so he suggested a 15 mile long run (which is much shorter than most long runs lately), with the last 5 at "marathon pace".

So I went out with a goal of 5 miles at 8:40/mile, 5 miles at 8:20 per mile and 5 miles at 8:00 per mile. It _almost_ went according to plan -- but between a bit of a headwind from the south and west to just being plain tuckered out, it was a tough run for those last 5 miles. Here are my splits:

9:05
8:34
8:39
8:37
8:39
{5 minute-ish rest at Clarke's Variety}
8:22
8:18
8:17
8:20
8:25
{10 minute-ish rest back at home}
8:01
7:53
8:03
{2 minute-ish rest at William & Maguire}
8:09
{2 minute-ish rest on William St.}
7:56

There is no question that the wind had an impact during those last 5 miles. After mile 3, my legs were super tired. And I clearly hadn't recovered after mile 4, even though by that time the wind was at my back. But I was reasonably pleased with my last mile.

It was a tough run. Its quite possible that I'm still not in 8 minute mile marathon pace territory. But, with just 7 weeks until the 2012 Boston Marathon, it wasn't a bad pace to target.