Confidence Builder

I've been hearing from people that before an upcoming marathon you should try to get in a 18-19 miler to build confidence. So far I've put down one run of 15 so I figured I might be able to hit the magic number. The only problem was I needed to do it within my allotted time of 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Instead of getting out on the road early, I decided to sleep in and get a good breakfast with friends. I got out early afternoon during a break in the rain. I didn't map out the route I just figured I'd run for 2:30 and see where the miles would fall. It's been taking me longer than usual to find my groove, usually about 30-40 minutes. The bones creek and the muscles tweak for the first 4-5 miles and then I usually settle in. Today it took a little longer probably from the lingering effects of yesterday's brick and a week of heavy running. Took the usual route that has lots of rollers and hills and then went out deeper into neighboring towns. At the hour mark I took a gel and felt a good burst. Things started tightening up around 1:30 but then I hit a good stretch and settled in, actually increased my pace for while too. My HR never went above 158. At 2:15 I was still trying to figure out how far I had actually gone and I thought somewhere in the range 16. Ended up back on my road at the 2:30 mark and wrapped it up at 2:33.

After mapping out my run I found that I went 18.4 miles. I felt good after the finish and felt strong all the way through. This is probably the longest run I've done so I am more than pleased to knock out 18 in 2:30. If I have fresh legs on race day I should be able to finish around the time of my goal. I'm also confident I'll be able to hold a faster pace than these training runs too. It was a confidence builder and I am really starting to love this long distance endurance shit. It's amazing what you can do when you just get out and do it.

Summary:

Run time: 2:33

Distance: 18.43 miles

Avg HR: 155