20 miles - what a difference a day makes

After my last couple of runs, I wasn't really looking forward to today's run.  My legs have just been feeling tired and I've been kind of slow and I didn't want to have a bad long run.  I set the alarm to get up and run early with the Kenyan Way group, but I just wasn't feeling real hot when the alarm went off.  I was tired and my legs and stomach weren't feeling the greatest so I decided to turn the alarm off and go back to sleep for a couple more hours.  When I got up, I was planning on just doing about 12 miles if my legs felt up to it.  I ended up doing 20.1 miles in 2:20:50

The weather was much better today - mid 50's, breezy and cloudy out.  I also wore a different pair of shoes which may have made a difference too.  I have several pairs of running shoes and most of the week I've been wearing a couple older pairs of shoes that probably ought to be replaced before long.  Since I wasn't planning on doing more than about 12 miles, I didn't take any water or energy gels or snacks with me, but I did stick my my tube of icy hot in my shorts just in case my legs got too sore.  I felt really good the first couple of miles and started thinking of maybe doing 15 miles if I felt ok.  The weather was really nice and I got in a groove and by about mile 6 I was thinking of doing 17 total.  I ran from my house up Memorial Dr to Voss, over to Woodway, Woodway to Chimney Rock to Tanglewood, down Tanglewood to San Felipe, through River Oaks, a little extra on the bayou and then back home.

Things were going great until I missed a turn in the middle of River Oaks and got slightly lost.  My last water stop had been at 6.4 miles at a water fountain and I was expecting to get back to the bayou somewhere between 14 and 15 and was going to stop at a drinking fountain there.  Sometime after I missed the turn, I realized that I wasn't on the route I was expecting to be on.  I kept going on and eventually hit Willowick and figured out where I was.  Unfortunately my bearings were a little off and I turned the wrong way on Willowick and ended up basically doing an extra loop in the middle of River Oaks before I figured out where I was.  Eventually I got back on track after doing a little more than an extra mile.  By the time I got back to the bayou and got to the water fountain I figured I would be a little over 18 miles if I headed straight home from there.  At that point I decided that I'd just do an even 20 so I headed about 3/4 of a mile down the bayou trail before turning around.  My legs were pretty tired the last few miles and I had a nice headwind I was running practically straight into the last couple of miles.  I averaged a 7:00 pace and I was pretty happy with that for a 20 miler that started out as a 12 miler and I was running by myself.  I think my HR was as low as or lower than on my slow run yesterday.  

Splits and avg HR:

1- 7:29, 142

2- 6:58, 152

3- 7:05, 156

4- 7:03, 158

5- 6:54, 160

6- 6:53, 161

7- 6:57, 160

8- 6:57, 160

9- 6:54, 162

10- 7:04, 159

11- 6:56, 163

12- 6:55, 164

13- 6:51, 163

14- 6:51, 163

15- 6:54, 167

16- 6:52, 163

17- 6:57, 165

18- 7:01, 165

19- 7:20, 168 (uphill and headwind)

20- 7:10, 169

I didn't quite get the 22 miles that was on my schedule, but I'm happy I was able to do 20 when I was thinking of doing quite a bit less when I started.  I'm definitely going to take a day off - probably tuesday - this week to let my legs try to recover.  I'll be racing in the Texas Independence Relay next weekend and doing 4 legs of ~5 miles over about a 24 hour period.  My primary goal is to get through the weekend without getting injured.  Time to go get some lunch.