This is it. This is the first of two 20 mile runs. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where the training plan attempts to break me down to rebuild me as a better me. And this is where Mother Nature decides she’s going to up her game too. She’s a bitch sometimes. The plan for the week is:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 mi + 7 strides | 8 miles | 5 mi + 7 strides | 5 miles M pace | 20 miles |
Monday was like any normal day. Chilly. Form drills in the park, 5 miles and 7 strides around the bridges and the riverfront parks. 6 miles in 51:30 (8:35 pace).
Tuesday was also like any normal day. Or so I thought. 8 miles, again around the riverfront parks and bridges, but to increase the length I went down Covington KY’s new path which is STILL not cleaned up from the flood. I thought maybe the mud would be solid, but I was wrong. 8 miles in 1:10:55 (8:52 pace).
Wednesday was rainy. Very rainy. I started with my normal form drills, 5 miles up the big hill into Eden Park, and then finished up with 7 strides in the park. Since my normal blue Zante v3s were still soaked after I rinsed all the flood mud off them, I wore my old black ones. 6 miles in 52:05 (8:41 pace).
Thursday was rainy, but not as bad as Wednesday. It was also warm. Ran a 5 mile “M pace” run (which was really more of an HM pace run) in the park where it was mostly flat. 6.5 miles total in 55:09 (8:29 pace); the M pace portion was 5 miles in 41:34 (8:19 pace).
Friday was it. My first 20 mile run. Of course it rained, because Mother Nature hates baseball (Thursday was supposed to be the Red’s Opening Day, it got moved because of rain, and well, it’s fucking raining). But I did it. I ran 20 miles in the rain. I even ran a negative split, which was partly assisted by a full pitstop with weight reduction at mile 6.66. 20.01 miles in 2:57:22 (8:52 pace).
That’s it for me for the month of March. 189.46 miles run over a planned 188.8 miles. This is my highest month ever, and it didn’t just ‘edge out’ the prior highest – it OBLITERATED it by 43 miles! I ran for 27:26:55, which also obliterated the prior most-time-spent-running month by 6:22:56.
Next week is a pull-back week… fortunately! One more 20 mile run and 37 days to the Flying Pig.
Cheers!