I love getting my long run out of the way early in the weekend.  And I love it even more when it’s a good one!  Today’s 20 (+) miler felt SO much better than the 20 miler 2 weekends ago.  I ran it exactly the way I wanted to, and exactly the way a training long run is supposed to be run.

The highlights:

• 21 miles in 3:14:33 (9:15 pace);
• It ended up being about 45 – 50 seconds per mile slower than goal marathon pace.
• It was a negative split, with the second 1/2 of the run being stronger and faster (and hillier) than the first 1/2.
• I felt strong and good the whole time.
• The only time I stopped was around 8 miles in, when I found a dead end street and stopped to pee.  Let’s hope noone was looking out the windows of the houses to see my big white butt!
• Right at 21 miles I had GI issues (thank goodness I was right outside my house!)
• Fueling was a strange mix of things because I realized last night I was really low on gu.  So, I had a few sport beans at mile 2, 3 shot blocks at mile 5, 1 gu at mile 10 and 3 more shot blocks at mile 15.  Also had a full handheld of gatorade that I sipped slowly throughout the run and made last until mile 19.  Perfect!
• I forced myself to take an ice bath afterwards, even though I feel fine.  I could only stand it for about 2 minutes though, so not sure that it will even do any good.

I’m glad I ended up getting a 20 miler in this week.  It was definitely a confidence builder for Little Rock.  One more 20 miler next week and then it’s taper time!