Yesterday morning I was struck by a sudden jump in my weekday mileage. I’ve always enjoyed when my long runs have climbed to a distance that makes normal people shake their heads and wonder at my sanity, but I like to keep my week day runs on the shorter side. I’ve repeatedly avoided training plans that climb to 8 or more miles on a weekday. I mean, come on, who has time for that? Certainly, not someone running at my pace.
But right now, I do have time for longer runs during the week, so this week I allowed my training plan to trick me into an 8+ mile run on a Thursday morning. I say trick because it was written as a ladder workout (warm-up, 1 mile @ goal pace, recovery, 2 mile….etc.), those miles sure do add up!
I never get sick of running by the water.
My 8.13 mile run (yes, I count every teeny tiny bit, I refuse to round down to 8) included two 1 mile segments and two 2 mile segments each run at goal pace. Currently I’m using a range of 9:35/mile to 10:05/mile for goal pace workouts. (I don’t have a very strict time goal, so I used my predicted marathon pace based on my last two races to arrive at that window.) I ended up running around 9:50/mile during those portions of the run, and it never felt impossible, which I’ll take as a good sign.
One thing I’ve been doing that I’m not sure is a very good idea: walking on my recovery intervals. I don’t walk the entire recovery part, but at least half. I don’t know whether this is bad or not. I’m not super concerned because I plan on taking walk breaks in the race, but I still feel a little guilty when I do it.
What’s the longest “short” run you’re willing to do? Should I stop walking my recovery?
Let's Go Running 
Nice job! I love the feeling of running longer than usual! It makes my long runs worth it when I can say “I ran 9 miles today!”. Which is exactly the amount of miles I plan on running tonight! Yay for long runs!
Totally agree, running long makes me feel so accomplished! I hope you’re basking in the glory of your 9 miles! 🙂
Sooooo…I watched Clueless with my friends and ate tacos instead. So maybe 9 miles will happen tonight?
Oh my gosh, that sounds like an awesome night! I haven’t seen Clueless in probably a decade, I may need to dig out the VHS player 🙂
Heh… my long runs are still pretty short right now so I’ll stick with my 2-3 mile shorter runs! 😉
As for walking your recoveries, I usually do, but I usually get scolded by my run club coach-guy. He says that you build your endurance by continuing to run your recoveries, but I say a) my race pace is everyone else’s recovery pace, so it makes sense if I walk it, b) I’d rather walk my recoveries when I feel like I want to keel over, and c) if you’re planning to walk during the race anyway then I don’t think it’s a big deal! Do what feels right at the time and make no apologies 🙂
Thanks for the input on walking the recoveries! I think you’re right that since I’m walking in the race, walking the recoveries isn’t a big deal, but since your coach probably knows what he’s talking about, I might try to run some of the recoveries on my next work out…But maybe not all of them. 🙂