Penultimate

Well, today was the penultimate long run before Florence, and I was dreading it. After not training for a whole week I felt like I had no energy and no motivation. I carb loaded well and set off fairly early (around 7.30am).
The first 5 and a half miles were truly horrendous. I just didn't want to do it. I eventually pulled myself together and enjoyed the majority of the run from 5.5 to 14 miles, but the last part was really tiring.
Shaun has said in a previous email not to get too hung up on running the whole way as speed was the important thing (irrelevant of how you get there) and I think today was the first time I wasn't annoyed at myself for walking. I'm actually not embarrassed to say that I don't think I'll ever run a whole marathon without a walk break... many people do it, some people advocate it (Jeff Galloway)!
What I did notice today is that I run fairly fast between the walk breaks... everything from a 8mm pace up to around 9.30mm. A couple of times I looked down at my Garmin to see 8.04mm and felt like it was almost like a fartlek session. The plan is for my "best pace" on the day of Florence to be 10mm, and I'm hoping that that pace will seem fairly comfortable when I'm minus a weighted vest and hydration belt and have the added bonus of the race atmosphere on the day. After running so much faster on my XL runs, I'm sure slowing it down to 10mm will have me putting far less walk breaks in too.

So, todays' run averaged out at 10.18mm pace, and I've read somewhere that for every KG less you weigh on the day of a race it takes 5 seconds per mile off your time. With all of my extra paraphernalia, I carry an extra 3 KG... equating to 15 seconds a mile which takes me to 10.03... and also bearing in mind today was mentally very tough because I couldn't get my head into it for so long! Oh well... it all looks good on paper, but the proof will come on the day hopefully!

Next week I'm intending to do a 18 mile loop as my last XL run, and then I will be tapering. The time has really flown over!

In other news, Merlin had his cortisone injection and 2 weeks antibiotic jab yesterday and doesn't have to go back to the vet for a few months, so my next trip there will be a much happier one as I take our new puppy for his second set of jabs after Florence. :-)