Long Run Report - 20 Miler (3-9-08)

I came up with a marathon training plan five months ago and have continued to modify and improve it along the way and make adjustments when necessary (foot problem six weeks ago). I am now in Week 19 of the 21 week plan and have been sticking to my mileage goals with some consistency. According to the most recent version of the plan, I should have run 438 miles to this point and I have actually run 417 miles (95%). For the most part, the plan has also maintained the originally intended progression from Base to Endurance to Speed and now I am nearing the Taper.

Throughout the 19 weeks of training, there have been some ups and downs. Some runs felt great, made me feel strong and were encouraging. Other runs felt impossible after the first 30 seconds and my need to struggle to complete them has caused me to question my objectives and ultimate chance of success.

I ran the last of my long runs yesterday. From the moment I stopped running, I knew that this 20 miler would not fall neatly into the Up and Down categories that I mentioned above. However, I think I learned a few things will say with optimism that I can draw more positive thoughts from the run that I can negative ones.

Several days ago, I checked on the weather and noticed that Saturday’s forecast was for drenching rain with temperatures in the 40’s and 50’s and Sunday would be a bit cooler and windy, but dry. I ran a few junk miles at the Y on Saturday as the rain forecast was indeed accurate and I planned my 20 miler for Sunday afternoon.

I used GMAP Pedometer to measure out a 5 mile loop through the streets of Swarthmore, Rutledge and Morton. The loop went by my father’s house about midway through and with my car parked at the other end of the loop, I had water and Gatorade at my disposal every 2.5 miles. These streets are flat for the most part and this is really the same as the 4 mile loop that I did last week for my sub 9:00 pace, 12 miler. I just extended it at a few locations to make it 5 miles.

I thought about what I wanted out of this 20 mile effort. As mentioned earlier, I want to gain training and conditioning benefit from the run. But I also want a useful baseline by which, I can determine if I need to make any adjustment to my 9:00 MPM goal race pace. After some thought, I decided that a perfect run for me would result in an overall pace in the range of 9:30 – 9:40 with the fastest miles at the end of the run which would be near race pace.

My overall pace for the run was 9:40 MPM, but my pace at the end was slower rather than faster. When you use the pedometer on the Internet, it is difficult to come up the exact placement for the mile markers, so individual mile splits aren’t always accurate. But the pace for each of the 5 mile loops is a good measure of how I ran.

Miles 0-5 9:42 pace
Miles 6-10 9:47 pace
Miles 11-15 9:23 pace
Miles 16-20 9:49 pace

I ended up being on my feet running for 3 hours and 13 minutes, which was pretty much my goal. I have read a lot about the benefit of fast finish long runs and I wanted to finish fast in the final loop (5 miles). What I learned on this particular day is that I can speed up after 10 miles, but my body was not about to speed up after 15 miles. Perhaps I was too aggressive on the third loop (miles 11 -15).

The weather turned out to be windy as predicted. Since my loop was basically a big circle with 90 degree turns, I can’t claim the wind was in my face the whole way. But, like running a hilly course, the fact that the net result might be neutral, does not take away from the reality that running on a very windy day (unless it is at your back) makes you slower.

There were certain stretches on the course where it was a real struggle to maintain pace. The Ocean Drive Marathon course brings the real possibility of having strong headwinds the entire way. If the weather is bad, the point to point course will be unforgiving. In 2007, the average finish time was approximately 10 minutes slower than previous years. For this 20 miler, I was cursing the wind at certain points.

My first 2 miles were at 9:18 and I realized I needed to slow down. I was in fairly good control of my pace for the next 8 miles. At the 10 mile mark, I decided that I was in good enough shape to start my gradual acceleration. I was cruising pretty good for a while. I was probably cruising too good, because as I came to mile 15 and my final loop, I realized I was very tired and very sore. Miles 16 and 17 were Ok, but the last three miles were at 10:00 MPM.

It was not a melt down by any account, but it didn’t turn out as I hoped. It might be as simple as I started to increase my speed about 3 miles too soon. I’m not in good enough shape to sustain an increase in pace for more than 5 miles after already running for 2 hours. I fought off the strong urge to walk and finished at 3:13, which is 14 minutes faster than the 20 miler I ran seven weeks ago.

Q: Did I reap meaningful benefit to my conditioning from this run?
A: I don’t know for sure. As a first timer, I think a 20 miler is essential for confidence/curiosity. Since I came up injured after my last 20 miler, I needed this more for the head than the legs. I think a 16 miler would have resulted in a much stronger effort that probably would have been more beneficial to my training with less risk of injury. My legs still don’t feel quite right (24 hours after running)

Q: How do the results of this run affect your planned race pace of 9:00 MPM?
A: I could talk all day about this one and would end up, right where I started. The experts tell you that your Long Run in training should be about 60 seconds slower than race pace. Mine was only 40 seconds slower, so I guess that’s OK. But I was totally spent when I was done, so that’s not good. Then there is the wind and the potential for weather on the day of the race. As a first timer, you really don’t know. At some level, I need to put away all the data and run the race as I feel it on race day. If I ever decide to do this again, I’ll be in a much better position to judge. For now, I’m sticking with the plan.