Marathon Training Week 7 Long Run

I have made the switch to starting my training weeks with the long runs from wrapping them up with the long runs. In some regards I am happy to be front loading my miles for the week. And for all the support on my post yesterday, thank you so much. One reason I wanted to post about readjusting goals was to stand up and say I did do it and am happy I did. And what is even better is that I get to follow up on that post with reporting I had a wonderful 18-mile run today with dear hubby. The first of many I hope in our training to run together officially during a marathon.

We started out a bit rough with some pre-run edginess I think we both suffer from but it quickly went to the wayside once we got on the road running in the same direction at the same time. Dear hubby did seem to want to go a bit faster but respected my statement that I was not racing this run and wanted to keep the pace easy. Our route had us running "uphill" for the first half and then "downhill" for the second. But please note, just because I say "downhill" it doesn't mean it is all downhill. The second time dear hubby told me it was all downhill from here I reminded him he told me that once already. And by the way, there were a couple uphills in that final downhill. So if you ever pass him on a race course and he tells you it is all downhill, don't believe him.

Although, not the worst elevation profile...look at the blue

All humor aside, it was a beautiful run that started out chilly in the morning air and shade and for that I am thankful. I could have done without the roadkill along the way, especially the puffy frog and flattened rat, but hey, I am glad I saw them and avoided them each time. I only had one footing mishap when we were coming to an intersection and I was more focused on watching the car approaching in which the driver was looking away from us. I wiggled a bit on my left foot due to a hole on the road but nothing serious. And later I noticed twice my heel coming down on rubble but my forefoot having me solid in place. Guess I am moving away from heel striking so much but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen anymore.

The run had a few segments where I felt perfectly in sync with my running and some where I felt achy but still strong. The toughest part is probably after my phone died and I no longer had GPS or music. This happened at 12.9 miles and I am glad I planned an out-and-back run with this "fear" in mind. I asked dear hubby the time so I could calculate my overall pace, since that stuff is important to me. In this time I felt the aches the most and finally I realized it may because I was not being distracted by tunes, etc. Once I made this realization, I believe I really did pick my pace back up and started having fun running again.

We ended up with an overall pace of 9'48", which is a tad bit faster that Smart Coach says my long runs should be. I am happy with the run especially since I know when my phone died I was averaging just over a 10-minute pace; therefore, we must have picked it up at the end. Gotta love negative splits! Makes sense with more downhill running. Oh yeah, and that 12-minute mile....that is when I really slowed down to allow dear hubby to run to a park bathroom and catch back up with me. He got back to me just in time because I was beginning to feel ridiculous.

How do you handle bathroom breaks when running with a partner? 

Running nutrition: Pre-run I ate two of my magic oatie muffins (small ones) with some coffee. During the run I took two PB GUs (one at 6 miles, one at 12 miles). We drank Gatorade and post-run I drank some Muscle Milk. Once we picked up darling daughter and got home, darling daughter and I had a "tea party" with soy milk and turkey and cheese mini sandwiches. It was divine!

What is your favorite post-run thing to do?

Daily Gratitude: I am glad dear hubby and I had a good run together.

Daily Affirmation: I am strong.