One step at a time!

Today's run was 12 miles, my longest on the plan so far. This run ended up being my second longest run ever! 

When I set out to do a long run it can be intimidating. I've run this distance before so I knew I was capable, but that was nearly a year ago and you want things to go well. I just checked back on the details of the last 12 mile run and the pace was 5 seconds faster per mile. That's encouraging. Then I think damn...I ran a half marathon at a 9:28 pace...1.1 miles less today was 10:20 pace. Then I tell myself to throw that out the window and focus on today lol

I'm super proud of my half marathon results, but I need to be realistic in know that's only HALF the amount I'll be running on December 1st. I'm still working on finding my marathon pace and today's run gave me great feedback. 

While I did get out on the road earlier than my other weekend runs it wasn't quite as early as I would have liked and as these runs get longer I need to accept that if I'm not going to be out there running in the dark before the sun comes up I'm going to be hating my life!

So the first third of the run was smooth and steady,  that nice, almost effortless feeling. The views this morning were perfection. My phone was in my Camelback so I didn't spend time getting it out, but I took so many mental pictures of all the beauty surrounding me. The sun rising over the river, the ripples in the water and the breeze in the trees. How blessed am I to take in these views?! It's just like I'm running in a tropical paradise 🌴🌞🏝 (I guess you could say I kinda am though lol) Anway, it makes the run so much more enjoyable. Appreciating life in the moment. 

I did start under the 10 minute mile mark and although I ran my half marathon under a 10 minute mile I knew that was going to be pretty ambitious for this run. By the time I reached the 4th mile I was in line with a 10 minute mile and felt good about that.

My run was an out and back run so miles 5 and 6 felt just as good. Nice breeze and losing only a few seconds per mile on pace. Then when I reached mile 6, which was my turnaround point I got smacked in the face (and body) with my challenge from mother nature...the wind...that resistance can be brutal!! So I was like, ok, this is what I'm dealing with, no way to change it, let me just work with what I got. 

My first instinct in these situations is to "power through", but there were 6 more miles ahead of me and that's a lot of "power through"...like a full hour! So at this point I decided to do by best to maintain pace without any expectations. This wasn't a race and I wasn't competing with anyone but myself. 

I saw my friends cycling out on the road right after my halfway point, that brought a nice bit of encouragement my way😊 

After my second third of the run the struggle started to set in. My pace was slowing each mile, but I made a choice in those moments. I could do the drill sargent talk to myself about "powering through" or I could take a different approach and I chose the latter. Honestly, the go go go stuff works really well for me for HIIT type activities, but in a marathon training situation it would be too easy for me to say "shut up" and "I hate this" or even the killer "I can't". My goal when I was in this second stage of the when to a place of kindness and encouragement. I wanted to say only kind loving things to myself. "You've got this!" "One step at a time", "You're going to feel so great when you finish". And at that point that's what I did. I threw any ideas of having to make a certain pace out the window. My aim was to enjoy the run and the surroundings as much as possible and envision myself crossing the finish line of race day. I mean this was less than half of the total miles! I was just imagining how I'd be feeling 18+ miles in. Eye on the prize, finishing as healthy as possible and crossing that finish line. I'm pretty sure I'll be crying. Happy tears for sure and maybe tears from the pain of it all as well.

So the last third of my run was with being with what is, not forcing, just knowing I'd get to where I wanted to be. I finished with a pace of 10:20, which was success to me. This run also showed me I need to focus on a slower start and that a 10 minute mile may be a bit ambitious for me. My original thought was between 10-13 so I'm thinking it would be wise to try to aim for 10:30 or 11 on my next long run to see how it feels.

Learning these lessons and feeling it out will definitely help me prepare for the big day. I also put my first miles on my new shoes which I added a little inspirational jewelry to.

How do you like them?

27 sessions down...61 more to go!