Friday:
AM: 4 miles easy pace in moderately cool conditions. I was feeling kind of sore, probably a bit more than I anticipated.
PM: I was supposed to do a 4xmile, but did not get it done. After arriving at the Dundalk HS Track, I saw some kind of construction going on, and a high fence surrounded the entire track. The fence was covered in some sort of tarp. It looks like they are just replacing the fence, but regardless, I had no access. I sat in traffic for about an hour trying to get to Goucher College to use their track and ended up being rather exhausted by the time I got there. After an hour nap in my car, I couldn't bring myself to run.
Saturday:
20 miles....29 degrees at the start, 50s by the end. After 9.5 hours of sleep, 10.5 total including Friday's nap, I felt completely rejuvenated. Clearly, I was exhausted Friday afternoon. The cold temperatures froze my hands for the first few miles, but they thawed out eventually. I blew away this run:
7:31; 6:52; 6:49; 6:38; 6:34; 6:32; 6:26; 6:23; 6:28; 6:14; 6:25; 6:11; 6:31; 6:14; 6:16; 6:01; 6:05; 6:00; 6:00; 5:59...2:08:07 overall.
My long run pace has done nothing but get faster all year. I already do these runs probably a bit faster than I should. Nonetheless, this run has shown me that I am poised for a huge PR. It just comes down to how fast I can convince myself to run.
I felt pretty good at the end of this run, the best I've felt all year. My feet hurt a little, probably because it was cold, and there is something very wrong with the second toenail on my left foot, but my muscles are acting like I could have done more. I may have to get that nail checked out, but that will be after the marathon.
There is a massive growth of hard material underneath the nail, and at this point, I can barely tell the difference between the nail and the other material. Sometimes it hurts after running, but most of the time it doesn't. That nail has not been growing correctly for almost the entire year now. I'm hoping that the entire thing will just fall off or grow out, but neither of those things have happened.
This is one of many runs where after early struggles and discomfort, all pain just leveled off and stopped getting worse, then slowly dulled as I continued to run. If I can get into that mode in my marathon, I'll be unstoppable. I'll just need to remember to fight through early discomfort, no matter how early it is in the race.
As for that missed workout, I'm converting the mileage to a Sunday afternoon run after my cross country race in the morning. I'm debating whether to do it next week (while keeping the weekly mileage at 60) or just canning it all together. At this point, I can't do a whole lot more to improve my fitness, it's just a matter of staying sharp for the race.
Of course now the million dollar question is my marathon race pace. It is very likely I will end up running a pace that even earlier this year (May) I had no hopes of maintaining. I'd rather throw it all out there and come up short than be too conservative and leave too much in the tank.
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