a 20 mile run and a 5k race

I would say that this was a week of extremes...the longest run I've done in a very long time (and 3rd longest run ever), and my fastest race since high school track.  Definitely wasn't running any sub-19 minute 5ks in high school!  But I wasn't running half marathons back then either, and I didn't see a significant increase in speed until I built up my mileage.  I've noticed over the past couple years that my short distance race times were improving, and at some point I realized that it was a result of increased endurance.  But I never guessed that the endurance would improve my short races quite this much!

I'm the one wearing a bright blue shirt and bright blue shoes...my lucky race colors? 

I thought a bunch of those cross country runner kids would beat me...but only one of them did.

Yesterday my main goal (other than winning and carrying home the $100 prize) was to find out if my 19:05 from early July was a fluke or not.  It was such a huge PR, I had trouble believing it could be real.  Even if it was real, I didn't think I would be able to get much faster than that.  I really wanted to break 19, but wasn't getting my hopes up for it.  And then...I crossed the finish line not just under 19, but under 19 with room to spare.  What an awesome feeling that was!  Now I almost want to take a break from half marathons and focus on 5ks for awhile.  That's not going to happen, of course.  But I may be signing up for more 5ks in between the longer races!

I should probably be doing speed workouts once in awhile.  I've been saying for months that I'm going to start doing them once a week.  Yet I haven't done a single track workout since last August.  And, quite frankly, since I'm getting faster without doing them...I don't have enough incentive.  Speed workouts are boring.  I hate stopping and starting.  I'm still going to keep trying to talk myself into doing speed workouts...someday...but who knows when I'll actually get around to it.

As for the 20 mile run.  It was brutal.  And painful (but not to my legs).  I don't think I enjoyed a single second of it (although some of the scenery was beautiful).  I'm glad I finally got it out of the way, since I am supposedly running a marathon in November, but geez, no-one should have to run that far alone, if at all!  I am going to try to do one more long run in mid-September, but I am not looking forward to it.

The worst part of that long run, was the fact that I had to bring water with me.  I'm not stupid enough to try and run 20 miles in the summer with no water, but carrying water while running is super annoying.  I have 2 fuel belts that I have acquired from friends, but I just can't stand them.  They bounce around on my hips and drive me crazy.  I tried to use one of them for this run, but I only made it one block before it drove me absolutely crazy, so I turned around and took it back home.  In trying to deal with the bouncing, I was changing my stride, and it was making my legs hurt.  So, I left the belt at home and carried the bottle in my hand.  Even though I switched it back and forth from hand to hand throughout the run, my shoulders and neck cramped up pretty bad from the weight.  They hurt really bad by the end of the run (and for a few days afterwards).  No fun.

This week:

M: off

T: 20.7 / 3:06:01 / 8:59

W: rest day

R: 5.56 / 44:33 / 8:00

F: 4.7 / 36:17 / 7:43

Sa: 3.1 / 18:39 / 6:00

Su: off

week total : 34.06

I actually might run at some point today...but I'm kind of assuming that I will choose to be lazy instead.