Monday, May 03, 2010

A Little Too Long? The Tale of Two Twenties

I mean 20-plus-ers. In fact, these 27 milers are killing me. Actually, last week's wasn't so bad, but this week's was a bit tough. The difference? Last week's long run was after a day of rest; this week's was the day after the Hudson Race for the Parks 15K.

Last week's run began with 3 loops around Hinckley Lake. Then I did two of the big 9+ mile loops with everyone else. It went swimmingly well. On Tuesday I hit the track and did Yasso's - 10 x 800 in about 3:15 or so. Now *that* was a tough workout. Of course there were a few other runs during the week, but I thought I was fairly well rested going into the 15K.

On the other hand, I suppose maybe the long run and the speedwork were still in my old legs. Whatever the excuse, the 15K did not go well. The first 3 were mostly uphill, but I held a decent enough pace, all things considering. The next 3 miles were on mostly uphill trails through a nice park. I didn't mind slowing down some, but was surprised by how much. The last three miles were back on the roads, and they were mostly uphill (see the trend here?). I thought I'd pick the pace back up, but despite my most fervent efforts, could only manage 7 minute miles. I finished in 65 minutes and change. Pretty darn bad indeed.

The funny thing is that I didn't feel all that horrible for Sunday's run. I did all three big Hinckley loops this time, and at least they were fairly consistent. Not particularly fast, just consistent.

That will be my last really long run before Cleveland. Or will it?

No comments: