Sunday, July 29, 2012

The Long Run

The Plan for Saturday called for 10 miles, and I ended up going a little more than that - 10.27 by my GPS watch.  I have run farther than that in recent weeks, but I decided to roll the distance back because there is plenty of time remaining in this plan for double-digit runs.  If the plan calls for 10, or 14, or 18 miles, I would count it as much a failure to run more than that as less.

Still, I depart from the Plan in one way, and this has helped me (I think) in many marathons so far.  I run the last mile faster than all the other miles, faster than my marathon goal pace (MGP = 9:00-minute miles) if I can.  The theory is that this will teach me to run fast at the very end of a long run, when I need to dig deep.  Saturday I ended up doing the final mile in 8:20, which was very satisfying.  Even though the 75-year old friend I was running with finished in 8:13. 

We all do the best we can.

No comments:

Post a Comment