Another Breakthrough Run Yesterday!

I was still feeling fatigued yesterday morning, so extra caffeine was in order. After I finished my usual 3 mugs, I made some more and had another 2. And still I wanted that oomph before my first 2-hour run of the year, so right before I left for Waterfall Glen, I drank some Ultra Violence.

It was a gorgeous day, but a little on the cool side. So cool, in fact, that I was wearing long pants, a long sleeved shirt and a light jacket on my way there. My metabolism is a little screwball right now, and in between meals and workouts I seem to be cold. Once I eat, though, the engine fires right up and of course when I begin working out.

When I arrived, I stripped off the pants, shirt and jacket and still had a singlet on. I stood outside my car and declared it warm enough to go without the singlet. It was almost 12:30 and bright sunshine for the most part.

I chugged about 10 oz. of Gatorade so that I could run for 1/2 hour before needing to drink more, which meant I could carry one 12 oz. bottle to get me through another hour of running. The plan was to do a full loop (9.65 miles), grab more Gatorade, and do another out and back to make my 2 hours.

When I started running (counterclockwise--there is a debate as to which way this trail is harder--next time I'll run it clockwise and get back on that), my legs felt like they were a little worked, especially since I'd done some strength training early in the day, and well, I've just been piling it on and I had run hills the day before at a pretty good clip, so I expected it.

First mile in 8:54. Which included walking 2 hills. Not bad, in fact, I usually don't go under 9 minutes for this first mile. Next mile 8:46, then 8:45, 8:44 and the big downhill into "the hole" in 8:28. OK, I'm seeing a pattern here. Fairly even pacing, no matter the hill content. Hmmm.... this is a new thing for me. Climb out of the hole in 9:01, and then the next mile in 7:50? WTF??? But it must be marked wrong because the next one was 9:40, so that averages out to...8:45, then a 9:05 (I started to feel tired), and the last .65 in 4:58. So the full loop in 1:24.16 for a pace of 8:44. Huh! That's a PR for me, for sure, now let's see if I can keep it up.

I continued back counterclockwise to get to 1:35 time before going back to the car for more Gatorade, and then I went clockwise, out for 12:40 and then back, and I know what the distances are and my pace was even faster than when I ran the main loop.

When I added up all the alleged extra mileage, I either ran 14 or 14.5 miles in 2 hours. Never did that before! I wasn't shelled afterwards and didn't feel like I had just raced--I just felt like it was a good effort in hills, and I swear I have never felt so good running in there! I also noticed that I run downhill better than ever, which must explain some of the sub-8 miles. Again, I think that the jump rope has just toughened up my legs and they are stronger in the hills now.

Now I'm excited about my next 2-hour run which won't be for 2 weeks, since next week is BIG HUGE FUCKING BIKING WEEK and I won't be doing a long run at all. I wanted to do an ice bath right after the run, but couldn't because I needed to get back to work and a few things heated up, but I did manage to stretch really well, went for a routine medical test, came home and ate some lasagna and a big salad and a couple of beers, passed out blissfully despite all the caffeine I'd had, and I woke up this morning HUNGRY!!!

I feel pretty good this morning, and will be doing some "crap," some swimming, my last little bit of strength training and then a nice, easy (yeah right) run in the sun, maybe an hour since I cheesed out on my Monday run.

This weekend's plans include 60 miles on the bike Saturday with a brick run and then maybe 80 miles on Sunday. If I do all that, I'll get in 170 miles on the bike this week and I'm shooting for 200+ next week. Yee-haw!

I am truly flabbergasted by how well I'm tolerating all this training and getting faster at running to boot! As I usually say several times a year, I absolutely LOVE the training because you never know whether the stars will align for you on a given race day, and I've already had some good races this year, so all is good!

Happy Friday!