Today is my long run and according to my training schedule I should be running for 125 minutes (I run by the clock, not distance). I had been running for 90 minutes on my long runs and would finish feeling like I could go another 30-45 minutes. I ran a route that should keep me on the road for 2 hours.
Cool thing about where I live is the roads interconnect in so many ways that I can add or subtract route time simply by adding another road or subtracting a street. I have the luxury of having multiple roads that I can use to create different routes so I don’t get bored running the same roads.
With about a mile and a half left to run I turned up the pace and was really feeling good. I couldn’t believe I had been running for nearly 2 hours and had this much left in the tank. I was thinking how ahead I was in my training, maybe I am ready for a sub 3:30 marathon. I hit that last turn feeling real goooooooood!! Arms pumping smoothly, easy breathing, legs light and strong, I head to the mailbox to get my watch and check my finish time.
Pop open the mailbox, look at my watch and Voila. 1 hour and 29 minutes. What the F–k!!? I was crushed and filled with disbelief. How in the hell could I have added more distance and ended up with the same time? Two things could have happened, either I was running faster than my normal long run pace or the new route wasn’t as long a distance as I thought. I figure the latter.
So much for me thinking I was ready for a sub 3:30 marathon. Oh well, I’ll just keep going and make damn sure I choose a longer route next week.
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