Each week a bit more confidence is gained as Ice Age approaches. Six weeks out means about 4 more weeks of decent training. Today was a long run and today was the day I proved to myself I could obtain one of the metrics. A couple months ago the plan was the same as it had been. Run 50-55 a week with a lot of walking and a hand full of long efforts. Then it was felt if 20 miles could be had at 11:15 pace then this was a good mark.
Not long after this I saw a picture of myself finishing in 2022. Fat, slow, and leaning so bad to one side (again), that it motivated me to change some things. Losing weight had to help. I need about 5 more pounds to get to my old fighting weight of 172. I added tempo runs and a few well timed moderate efforts to make me faster. Then in a rare move, I actually move around 3 days a week near 12-14 minute miles to rest up.
Today the plan was go find a groove and stay there. I wasn't going after it like last week, but I wanted the pace to be respectful. So without any food before or during the run and subsiding on only water and coffee I ran 23.3 miles at 10:18 pace in 4:00:23. I'm not sure what this tells me, but it does reinforce the high end goal of 10:30 is not off the table. The goal is just to finish, not chase time, but some days if you ain't blastin' you and lastin'.
Next week I'll go around 5 hours and practice run/walk strategies at about 2 minutes slower a mile. I have not sought out the trails much. I'm trying to increase speed. Besides, I end up pulling tics out of funky places a day or two later which freaks the wife out.
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