Nailed it!

I opened my email this morning and there it was.

"2016 Boston Marathon: Please Verify Your Address Information"

EEEK!

7 more weeks!

Last week was a good training week.  My speed workout was 12x800; 800s are my favorite so I always like when they come back around.  I ran the easy runs slower than I had been and felt well rested for my long run plan: 2 hours, 30 minutes with the first 80 minutes easy pace, next 45 minutes medium pace and the final 25 minutes hard.

My practical goal was to slow down for those 80 minutes - hold back, so that I could progressively get faster.

And I'll be honest.  I REALLY wanted to get 20 miles logged in that amount of time.

I was doing some route planning on Friday and discovered that there is a nature preserve not too far from my usual long run route.   I worked out a route that would have me running to the nature preserve, through it, turn around and go back home and make up whatever amount of time remained while in my hilly neighborhood.

I was going to get up early and do this the first thing on Saturday morning.  And then I saw the weather forecast.  It was going to get up to 50 degrees!  I wanted a piece of that so thankfully my husband was amenable to the change.

The last time I had a long long run I ran it on a treadmill.  I was telling myself that if I can run 2:20 on a treadmill, I can run 2:30 outdoors.  I also replicated the dinner I had before that LONG ASS treadmill run for lunch - this recipe.

Then I was flip flopping about what I would wear.  I thought I might be too cold in shorts and then I saw that my IG feed was full of people running in shorts so I went for it.  I had recently gotten a new-to-me pair of Oiselle shorts from the Volee Gear Swap page so I was going to test those out.  I donned my hot pink CEP compression calf sleeves along with a short sleeve, long sleeve and light jacket.

I had charged and loaded my iPod with some podcasts so that was good to go.

Now fuel.  The bad part of my intended route was that it was, for the most part, out and back.  So I would have to run with two water bottles for a lot of the route.  Hashtag Annoying.  Only one of my water bottles is nice to run with and the other was a free throwaway from one of my husband's golf outings.  I filled the ergonomic one with nuun and the other with water.  Threw 2 Gu packets in the pocket and was off.

It felt so awesome to run in shorts outside in the sunshine.   I quickly got hot though and was cursing myself for wearing all the top layers.  At the 3 mile mark, I stopped and took off my long sleeve and tied it around my waist.  It was fairly windy out however, I only had to deal with a crosswind to this point.  I dropped one of my water bottles off at around 5 miles and continued on.  I felt really good but was purposely trying to reign it in, although seeing my pace on my Garmin made me a little nervous as it was still in the low 7:30s.

I got to the nature preserve and stopped to check the trail map and continued on.  It was really muddy and gross and awesome.  The trail through was shorter than I anticipated and I came back through to head home, turned out of the driveway and BAM.  I was slammed by the wind.  I had about 4 miles into the wind before I was set to turn again.  Those 4 miles were the toughest for me.  I was supposed to pick up the pace a bit at that point and that sort of went out the window.  I readjusted to 'just keep running'.

It felt AMAZING to turn off and no longer be running INTO the wind.  I made it back to our neighborhood and dropped my two water bottles and the shirt around my waist.  It felt as if I had dropped ten pounds.  I felt so light and springy for a bit after that.  I was looking at my watch and I had 20 minutes left.  I spent time doing mental math.  Was it possible to get 20 miles in by 2:30:00?

I was definitely tired but tried pushing it.  I got to 19 miles and realized I was going to have to run sub 7 to get to 20 miles in the amount of time I had left on the clock.  So I started thinking about doing 800s in 3:15-3:20 and not look at my watch until I heard the "beep", indicating I had hit another mile.

I heard the beep and hit stop immediately.

2:29:59.

FOR REAL.  I took a picture.  20 miles!  I did not restart for that last second.  EH was going to just have to give that to me :)

My last four miles were:
7:22, 7:08, 7:07, 6:44

My average pace: 7:30.

The best part was that I was definitely tired, and the last mile hurt, but I could picture running more.  I looked back and about this time last year I did 19.75 miles in 2:31:38.  Love seeing improvements!

(Which is what I did when my daughter wanted to go on a bike ride, immediately after I walked in the door.  SURE, honey...I'll run/walk next to your bike...)

If my avg pace is 7:30 at Boston, my finish time will be: 3:16:38  - not too far off my 3:15 goal.

Last week's mileage: 39.38 miles
Mileage per plan: 37.50

Total February Mileage: 148.73 miles

Heard on the Run
1. Magically Interrupted, Modern Love Podcast Episode 6

2. In Darkness and In Light, Modern Love Podcast Episode 7
The modern love podcasts are great for easy parts of my run.  I try to focus on the story and not running too fast too soon.  I liked this story but my favorite part was the interview with the author afterwards.

3. Hindsight Part 1, Serial Season 2, Episode 7
I am not as taken with season 2 of Serial but I likely will hang on for the end because I'm not really sure what the end is.  I also am not entirely clear on the goal of this story either.  It seems a little all over the place.   Part of why I feel this way may be because I have listened to every episode so far while running and sometimes I am present for the whole story and other times I am not.

4. Running on Om, Episode 182, Interview with Sally Bergesen, CEO of Oiselle
It's safe to say that I drank the Oiselle Kool-Aid.  I admit that bias.  This interview, all 1:30 of it got me through most of my 2:30 long run.  I deliberately saved it for the last 1:30 of my run as I knew it would be inspiring.  I'm ready to pack up my family, move to Seattle and beg her for a job.