Long Runs: Great Success

It's the middle of training week 8 for CLE. Things are looking good; I've been reaching my planned weekly mileage, long runs have been solid, and I'm feeling improvements. Unfortunately, I haven't done any speedwork since Yassos a few of weeks ago. I can only blame myself for that--because I haven't designated speedwork days on my Excel document of this training plan, I've failed to think of doing it. I could do that now, but...

Anywho, I had a super-duper accomplishment two weekends ago. I arrived in Atlanta at 11:30PM on that Friday night, got to our accommodations around 1:00AM, and was awake until 3:00AM, listening to drunk groomsmen singing outside of our room. I woke up around 7:00AM, wide awake, and found my way to the resort's fitness center for a treadmill run. My scheduled long run was 10 miles, but I only anticipated running 7. Well, really, I anticipated doing 3 or 4, but I told myself that I would not step off of that treadmill until I hit at least 7. The last time I ran on a treadmill, nearly one year ago, I barely made it 4 miles. It was so boring. Despite my sleep shortage, the stars must have been aligned just right on the night prior, because I banged out 10 treadmill miles.

And I could have run more.

I felt like a million bucks for the rest of the day, and I attribute it to accomplishing more on that treadmill than I expected. It also helped me to feel less guilt about all of the wine, miniature crab cakes, steak, and salmon that I consumed later in the day.

This past Sunday was my longest run yet at 16 miles. On Saturday night, I had a couple of double IPAs, lots of very cheesy bread, and ribs. I was clearly not thinking about the condition in which I'd find myself the next morning. Those two beers knocked me out, so I was asleep, according to Joe, by 9:00PM. I don't know if it was going to bed so early or the champion-combination dinner I had, but I ran my entire 16-miler feeling pretty good about myself. The first 10-ish were with Joe and Rob, then I trekked solo around Perrysburg for my last 6. Here are my splits, those positive in bold:

9:04, 8:56, 8:49, 8:56, 8:46, 9:08, 9:34, 9:06, 8:58, 8:41, 8:39, 8:37, 8:35, 8:32, 8:43, 8:22, 0:17 (.03)
Total time: 2:21:44
Total miles: 16.03

I'm happy with those splits, especially for my longest run yet in training. I fueled with a couple of Clif Shots, the first I think in mile 5 and the second around mile 11.5, which I think I planned perfectly. I did struggle a little bit in miles 6 and 7, but I think it was just getting myself going again after taking a water and fuel break. Those Clif Shots are definitely where it's at.

This weekend is going to be a real challenge. I am in a wedding, so I'm not sure if my long run is going to happen on Sunday morning. I'm thinking about doing it on Saturday morning before all of the pre-wedding beautification treatments begin at 10:00AM. If I am going to do that, I'll need to be up and running by 7:00AM. That'll mean that I need to behave on Friday night at the rehearsal dinner. Here's hoping that I can continue to maintain awesomeness from the previous two long runs...