a sincere thank you to my legs

dear legs,

well, you survived another 20 mile run. thank you for putting up with my insane goofy challenge training these past 20-something weeks. all we have left are a couple 800 workouts and otherwise just some easier running until the big race(...er, races). next weekend's long run is only 12 miles! you've really held it together for me most days and given me some great runs. you should feel honored to have gained so much speed. i think we can really hack off some more minutes and seconds in 2009 and i hope you'll still be willing to work with me.

i know you'd like to thank me for actually training for a marathon for once, and you are quite welcome. after atlanta, i've learned that marathon's don't really hurt as bad if you actually go on long training runs. yes, i know i said we could go get a massage after your bq performance in atlanta, but i'm cheap and haven't wanted to part with $50 for 30 minutes of pain-filled pleasure. you're lucky, joyrun just recently made me jealous of her spa day so stick with me, give me a few more weeks and two great races, and i just might splurge for the hour-long session.

sincerely,
me

oh right, today's run...
yes ladies and gents, today was my "3rd" and final 20 miler in preparation for goofy/disney. (i say "3rd" because technically atlanta was supposed to be a 20+ mile training run, but i have this competitive issue and ended up racing it...) i slept in a little, and took my sweet time waking up and getting ready. i decided to eat a bowl of cereal pre-run (i rarely eat pre-run) so then i had to wait a bit for it to digest so it wouldn't be sloshing around giving me any explosions from either of the emergency exits.

i wanted to do a semi-tough, progression run, especially since yesterday's 10 9 was just an easy run. well the first 10 miles went a lot faster than i thought they would. my hr was still staying low enough, but my splits were faster than i kinda wanted them to be. at this pace i was going to have to basically be running a tempo run (or better) for the last 5 miles. wasn't exactly sure i'd have that much gas in the tank, so i re-adjusted my goals in order to not kill myself. today was just not my day for pacing, but i'm satisfied with the run as a whole. it was about 18 minutes faster than my first-ever 20 miler, after all.

(i know most of you will be bored by all these but i figure i might wanna look back one day...)
mile 1 - 9:28, 158
mile 2 - 9:06, 153
mile 3 - 9:02, 155
mile 4 - 8:55, 162 *popped some fruit-punch flavored sport beans, mmm candy
mile 5 - 9:01 159
mile 6 - 8:49, 163
mile 7 - 8:48, 157
mile 8 - 8:42, 153
mile 9 - 8:20, 152 *more sport beans, still delicious
mile 10 - 8:15, 154
mile 11 - 8:11, 159
mile 12 - 8:41, 166 *even more beans, yum yum
mile 13 - 8:09, 162
mile 14 - 7:48, 163
mile 15 - 7:53, 169 *beans
mile 16 - 7:54, 165
mile 17 - 8:01, 168 *i think i had a few more beans here too
mile 18 - 8:02, 166
mile 19 - 7:56, 172 *into some serious gusts of wind the whole time = not fun
mile 20 - 7:46, 170

am run: 20 miles, 2:48:56 (8:26 avg pace), avg/max hr (161/187)