20 Miles and feeling good

After last week's semi-failure of a run during the 15 mile race I was anxious to make things right. I am in the heat of marathon training and it was time to run 20. I ate well last night. Chicken thigh, lots of mac and cheese, other food as well. My wife fattened me up. I slept well, got had a bowl of sugary cereal. I grabbed 3 waters and two honey oat granola bars to eat on the run. The first 10 miles were easy as they usually are. I had a granola bar at 7 miles and one about 14 miles into the run.

About mile 16 I was feeling good and knew I was going to finish. I didn't run real fast but I was consistent. I ran a 9:37 pace for the first 10 miles. I was faster for the last 10. I don't have the numbers in front of me but I'd say my average was about 9:15 or so. I ran the last mile at about an 8:45 pace slightly uphill so I felt good. I kept my heart rate below 141 for the first 10 miles and then upped it to the high 140's till the last few miles when it went to 151. I pushed it hard that last mile or so so I was pretty sore. I was trying to stay below my so called lactate threshhold heartrate so my legs didn't build up too much lactic acid. I'm thinking that heartrate is somewhere in the low 140's for me.

I also took some measurements on my weight. I had lost weight before the Charleston Race and I even got down to 155.5 this week which is another pound down for me. I ate well the last part of the week and by Sunday morning was up to 159lbs at the time of the run. After my run, even though I drank and ate food. I was down to 154.5lbs! That's a 4.5lb loss over 20 miles. That tells me that if I were to run 26.2 I need to drink even more water and eat more food! This was a great run to boost my confidence from last week's race.