34km (21C, a little rainy but mostly just cloudy)
Big day for training, my long run before my first road marathon that’s now two weeks out.
Originally wanted to do this as mostly a trail run to reduce the pounding this close to race day. Weather (big rain came through overnight and off-and-on through the day) so all the trails were closed.
Switched over to an all-hard-surface local 20 mile loop (concrete paths, sidewalks, and side streets) which was fun since a few of them were new to me.
Tried to work in a couple of zone 3(race pace) 3K sections and some zone 2 (“second half race pace”) and unfortunately those seemed to line up with the places I missed a turn or had to fumble with my phone charger.
Essentially felt great for 16k and then the rest was just sort of hang on as I dropped back to zone 1 and then eventually zone 0 (lethargic jog insisting on not walking but about as fast as)
Happy overall with the distance and getting the long run in despite the bad weather (and avoiding some threatened severe weather that could well have cut this short). A lot less confident in any particular race pace now (how can I maintain a zone 3 or zone 2 all morning?) but I’m gonna stick with my 4:30 pacer, until I can’t. Maybe by having a good pacer it will keep me from going to deep in the well on race day.
Also, unlike yesterday, I won’t be doing a hard group bike ride the day prior =}
Two weeks to go… BRING IT!
