20 Mile + October in Review

Saturday I had attempt #3 at 20 miler #1.  Attempt #1:  Mankato Half Marathon + 6.9 miles that didn't happen.  Attempt #2:  4 mile death run fail.  I started the run on the same route that I attempted last week with some hillier miles for the beginning 4 miles.  When I circled back to my apartment I grabbed my handleheld and GUs and was off.  
1. 9:15
2. 9:29
3. 9:31
4. 9:34
5. 9:39 


The miles seemed to fly by and before I knew it I was halfway done with the run.  (P.S. I'm pretty sure this is why you're not supposed to wait 3-4 days to blog about a run.... I seriously am blanking on anything fun/eventful/noteworthy from the first half of this run.)  I did start to feel warmed up, and my mile times sped up ever so slightly.
6. 9:30
7. 9:32
8. 9:26
9. 9:24
10. 9:19 


It was shortly after the halfway point that I ran in to Tom who turned around to run some miles with me. Yay running buddy!  He was doing 15 that day, so it was nice to have some of our miles overlap.  He's doing the Goofy Challenge in January, so we talked about about his race plan, strategy and race schedule for 2011.  I suck at running + talking.  Seriously.  It's so hard to breathe properly when you're babbling away.  I was starting to get tired so I bid adieu to Tom after about 5 miles and he sped off in to the distance.  One of our run topics had to do with Tom wishing he knew sign language.  I think some signing will need to be implemented the next time we run so I don't suck so much!  Oh well, it was still nice to run with Tom.   :)
11. 9:17
12. 9:28
13. 9:50
14. 9:50
15. 9:59 


Part of the reason I was hating life so much while running with Tom is that we had a couple of mile stretch where we were running in to the wind.  Blech.  Wind is dumb.  After we went our opposite directions, I had nothing to distract me from the wind.  It sucked.  And was dumb.  :)  I was pretty tired for the last couple of miles and was just ready to be done.  Unfortunately, there is some construction on the bike path, so after the 4.15 miles and the out and back I still had 3/4 of a mile to do once I got back to my apartment.  Can I just tell you how much it sucks to be at your apartment after 3 hours of running nad have to keep going?!?!?  Suckkkkkkkkks.  I ran around the block randomly until my watch finally told me 20 miles.
16. 9:27
17. 9:31
18. 9:44
19. 9:31
20. 9:42


I really tried to pick up the pace, but I was pretty tuckered out from fighting the wind for the last 7ish miles.  I did 20 miles in 3:10:58 for a pace of 9:33.


When I was done, I was tired, but my legs felt pretty good, especially compared to the 20 milers I did last spring.  Getting ready to go out for the night, I was even dancing around my apartment.  Whaaaaaaaaaaa?  Sunday I had to retrieve my car from a friend's so I opted to do a quick 2 mile jog there and had to rein my legs in from going to fast..... on hills.  Again.... whaaaaaaa?  Pretty much made up my mind that 22 this weekend is totally doable.  Eeeeeek!

October in Review

Total Miles: 151.2 up from 86.1 last month. Almost doubled.  Whoo!  (Last October 115.1)

Total Time:  23:52:41 up from 13:18:55. (17:41:15 last Oct.).

Total Runs: 19 for an average of 7.96/run

Highest weekly mileage: 10/18-10/24 39 Miles 6:21:55

Favorite run: Oh man, I had so many googly-eyed-I-want-to-shout-it-from-the-roof-tops-how-much-I-LOOOOOVE-running runs, that it'll be hard to narrow it down.  I'll go with my 18 mile domination.

Most hardcore run: Toss up between some tough mile repeats or a tough tempo run.

Favorite Race: Well I technically only had one true race: the Twin Cities 10 Mile.  But even that was a "let's test the knee because we should be two weeks in to marathon training right now AND DEAR GOD TIME IS RUNNING OUT!!!"  I have to say that I ADORED pacing for the Mankato Half Marathon.  Definitely something I'll do again.  :)

Bike Miles: [whistles in a distracting manner] It would appear that I logged exactly 0 miles for October.  :/  In my defense I biked a lot (for me) in September because I was injured and in October I was head over heels in love with running.  Get over it.  ;)  

Favorite Jams: Rihanna--Only Girl (still), Foo Fighters--Everlong (obsessed) and Taylor Swift--Haunted (ipod killer).