Day 76

Long run day...

Distance: 18.50
Duration: 2:51:20
Pace: 9:16
HR Avg/Max: 135/150
notes:
Today's run kicked my ass more than any run has for quite a while. I'm assuming that the culmination of last weeks 20 miler, the 5 days I ran this week in a row, the fartlek workout, and the 41 miles I ran this week finally caught up to me. I started off decently at about an 8:30 pace and kept it up for about 6 miles... but then at the 6 mile mark I started to fall apart. My legs were dead and just didn't want to move. I wound up slowing down wavering between a 9 and 10 minute pace, and while my heart rate was still low (129 BPM) I just couldn't get my legs to go any faster. When I hit the 9 mile mark I stopped and walked for about 2 minutes to gather myself and then started back towards home. The next 5 miles were more hell... I plodded along telling myself as I hit each mile mark that I would stop after the next mile and walk some more... I kept this trick up until mile 14 where there was a water fountain. I stopped and drank and then walked for another 2 minutes... starting up again was even harder this time but I managed to get going. The water must of helped because I felt better and even picked up the pace slightly. I was able to finish strong and when I hit the 18 mile point I still had a little bit of trail left so I went ahead and ran the extra .5 miles, although it wasn't actually that I felt good enough that I wanted to run the extra .5 but rather that I was so desperate to get back to the car and I had been running so long that I couldn't really process the idea of stopping.

I'm guessing that today was probably the closest to glycogen depleted that my body has been so far (although I didn't hit "the wall" or anything)... When I got home Natalie made me a coke float which did wonders for my psyche... tomorrow's a day off and I plan of resting up!

11 weeks of training down... 7 more to go!