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Today was scheduled to be my final long run at close to Half Marathon race pace as there are only 3 weeks left until the Shamrock Half Marathon. I helped Elizabeth with her "Brick Run" training this morning (bike, run, bike) and then prepared for my run.
The weather conditions (sunny, windy) and temperature (45F, 7C) today were right in the zone where I debate between running in tights or shorts. After feeling the gusty winds during Elizabeth's training session, I elected for tights and a long sleeved tech shirt... which turned out to be the right decision.
I had planned to run for 1 hour 50 minute or Half Marathon distance, which ever came first. I had run at 8.20/mile pace last weekend and set my watch for the same again today. If I am going to break 1:45 for the Half Marathon, I need to be at 8.00/mile, so 8.20 is close enough for a training run.
My typical greenway trail run is 12 miles in length, and unless I repeat any of the parts of the run, there isn't a way to make it any longer. With this in mind, I decided to add a loop of Shelley Lake at the front of my run (2 miles, 16.40) before heading down the Ironwood Trail to the Alleghany Trail and the Crabtree Trails. I started out holding my 8.20/mile pace and at halfway increased to 8:10/mile and ran the last 3 miles at 8:00/mile for a total time of 1 hour 47 minutes and 10 seconds for a full 13.1 miles.
It feels great to have covered the full Half Marathon distance 3 minutes faster than my official PR without any major pain. My legs are tired and my calves are a little tight, but that is about it. I can gain a lot of confidence from this run as the greenway is a much tougher run that the Shamrock course and I only need to find 10 seconds a mile on race day to meet my target!
My plan for this coming week is a couple of easy runs (Tuesday/Thursday) and then the Cary Distance Festival 10K on Saturday.
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