Big Sunday, Big Week

A long run today - 20 miles with the second 10 planned to be at marathon pace (7:06). I picked a pretty hilly route with the first 10 being familiar and then a new 5 mile section and then a familiar route to finish.

Ended up being pretty damn hilly! Got thru the first 10 miles in 1:21:24 (8:08 pace) but I didn't start the fast stuff becuase I was on this steep muddy up/down trail. I certainly couldn't run 7:06 up it, and it didn't seem to smart to try and run 7:06 down it. So it wasn't until 11.5 that I picked up the pace.

Covered the next 8 miles at 7:12 which was OK as it was pretty rolling with a couple steep 100' climbs thrown in there. I was feeling a little guilty about shorting the fast miles so I ran miles 18 and 19 quicker at 6:49. It felt great to be running at sub 3 hour marathon pace after 19 miles. Especially at the end of another big mileage week. Tired at the end, and 40oz of gatorade went down real fast once I was home.

Mileage for the week was just over 73 miles. A monster PR week for me. Next 2 weeks should be about the same mileage, with the long runs going to 21 and 22. Fortunately I don't have the long fast miles planned in those, but January is looking like it'll be over 300 miles (a big jump from 230 in December, which is the only other 200+ month I've ever run)

Easy 5 miles at super slow recovery pace tomorrow, which will be a welcome change from the last few days.