The Long and Winding Road...

Apparently leads all around Medina. Because "all around Medina" is exactly where I was getting to this morning. It was Long Run time today! Long Run with capitals L and R! I'm slowly building my distance every week to prepare for the Columbus Marathon in October. My last Long Run was 12 miles and two weeks ago. Today I planned for around 14 miles. I had no specific course in mind, just went out meandering for a couple hours. My 12 mile time two weeks ago was just under 2 hours, so I wanted to be somewhere between 2:15 and 2:30 today. Based upon the relatively flat terrain, that should have been sufficient to get me to my desired distance.

Or beyond! In fact, I ended up running 16.5 miles today. Wow! I wasn't supposed to hit that mark for another couple weeks. The best part is that I still had gas in the tank when I finished. I probably could have gone for 20 today. Granted, I would have needed to stop for a Gatorade refill, but even so, I was NOT expecting to be that far along yet. Today my course took me south across Route 18 and down a major residential street. I eventually made my way to the high school where at mile 11.2, I ran a mile on the track. My split was 8:37. Right on track. I can comfortably keep up an 8:30 pace for a while. That should be my goal pace for the marathon.

Upon leaving the high school, I made my down the street to the middle school where we have our Tuesday night speed sessions. I ran 2 miles on the track there. The first one coming at mile 13 in my Long Run had a split of 8:44. A little on the slow side. So for my second mile on the track I picked up the pace a bit and banged out a 7:58. Nice! And I still felt great after that. But I had been out for over 2 hours and decided it was time to just head straight home. I had gone through two bottles of Gatorade Endurance on my Fuel Belt as well as two bottles of water that I drank with two packets of PowerBar PowerGel. I refilled one bottle from the water fountain with some nasty tasting warm water and headed for home. I finished my run in 2:20 for 16.5 miles. I am very pleased!

As for my report from Tuesday, I won't go into the full details, but it was a little short due to Meet the Teacher Night for Jr. P. 1 mile warm-up followed by a mile of striders. Then a reverse ladder consisting of 1 mile, 1200m, 800m, 400m x 2, 200m x 2, and a lap to cool down. All my times where right on where they have been. I banged out a 6:19 mile and a 3:00 half mile which are on the fast side for me. I also had a decent 200m at 33.78. Not much when compared to the times they're pulling over in Beijing, but not bad for me.

I need to go. I somehow found myself entered into a contest on WKNR, the winner of which gets to choose between tickets to the OSU, USC game or Browns, Steelers. The winner needs to be present to win, so in a little bit I'll be heading up to a bar in Lakewood to see what happens.

I'll also be replacing my spent calories on some succulent malted barley beverages.

Mr. P