Notes
Mostly sunny, windy, 40 deg. the wind made it too cold for shorts. Long run today, on call at the mill so I ran there. Plan was to try and get 20 if my legs felt ok. My left knee was sore this morning, from the run yesterday. I figured the Frye Cross over loop, plus the Black Bridge loop and then back through Mexico up to 108 would just about do it. Ran up Steve’s favorite hill, to York St, down Lincoln Ave to Somerset and down to Hancock. Warm up mile was a 9:33. I decided to try and keep the average pace below 9:30 if I could. Legs felt ok and the pace was around 9:15 for most of the miles. The wind was whipping across Scottie’s field coming down into that curve. The rest of the way out the wind was in my face, not enough to slow me down and it actually kept me from getting too hot. We had a couple inches of snow last night and almost to the crossover I saw some running shoe footprints in the snow. Kristen maybe? Crossover and started coming back on Frye stretch. Legs still felt ok, a couple aches and pains that came and went. Was able to keep the pace up. The wind was mostly at my back so I was warmer, but not too hot. My stomach was starting to feel empty, so I stopped at the Thompson hill trail intersection, 11.8 miles, to have a honey stinger waffle. Started out again and energy was much better. Once in to Mexico, I cut down to the street Ayla lived on and ran to Heidi’s then cut back out to 17 and started the Black Bridge loop counterclockwise. The wind in my face was ridiculous and it slowed me down. Crossed over Black Bridge and ran at a pretty good clip to the hill just past Mike Davis’. Right at 16 miles I felt like I hit a wall and my energy just dropped. Got out a GU and ate that. Started to feel better, but I was getting tired. Ran down into Hosmer, like Bob and I did the other day, then up to Hannaford. Turned the corner and ran down Lincoln Ave. pretty easy so it wouldn’t take too much of a toll on my knees. Really struggled through Mexico, I was pretty hot with the wind at my back, and my music ran out. So I stopped before the bridge at 18.6 miles to change music, squeeze the sweat out of my headband. Once I got going again, the wind coming down river cooled me off and I felt better. Going up the hill and the incline on 108 wasn’t too bad. My pace slowed to 10:00 or more but I felt much better. Crossed over the Green bridge and headed up the last hill to the Library, didn’t feel too bad. I wanted to come back across the footbridge, so I ran through the rotary and down the road to the footbridge. Crossed the footbridge feeling good back to the gate. Really good training run, felt like I could’ve gone longer. Legs weren’t too tired and my energy was still ok. Nothing was sore. Glad to get another 20 miler on the books. The wind was a little strong at times, but the sun was nice and overall good weather for a run.
Gear: NB tights, orange W2B long tech T, headband, water pack with Tailwind.