Today I ran my second 22-mile training run en route to the Oct. 5 Maine Marathon in Portland. A few interesting things to note – the first and most striking of which is that I felt really good, all the way through and afterward. As recommended by various training programs, I ran it about one-minute-per-mile slower than my race day goal pace. And unlike last week, when miles 21 and 22 got pretty grueling (read as legs turned into concrete posts), I had enough kick left this week during the last four miles to pick it up and run it as fast as the early miles. The factors seem to be better processing of fuel (I'm not having those terrible energy crashes I did when I ran 18 and 19 miles for the first time, and I don't feel mentally and physically wiped out afterwards as I did then), and better hydration. Despite drinking the same 32 ounces of water during the run as last week, I started out a few pounds heavier in water weight and lost fewer pounds during the run. I ran earlier in the morning, and that helped, but I think a lot of it has to do with how much I hydrated yesterday and last night. Oh yeah, and I ate a huge slab of lasagna for breakfast right before I hit the road. I think that helped as well. I'm still not sure I'm going to hit my goal pace on race day – oddly, the closer I get and the more training milestones I hit, the more I realize what a foolishly optimistic goal a BQ time was to set for a first time marathon. On the other hand, the progress is enough so I still have this wild hope left that I'll make it. With about six weeks left to train and taper, and the expectation of weather 20 degrees cooler, fewer big hills than my home training ground here in Manchester, and maybe another ten pounds dropped between now and then… maybe, just maybe. Cheers to everybody who's going to join me in having a cold one and watching the Olympic Marathon tonight! Go Ryan Hall!
Tags: long run, marathon, Running
