Peak Mileage Milestone - 20 miles

So this morning I ran the first of the 20 mile training runs, 3 of which are on the Hal Higdon plan I am following. 2 more to go. 20 miles is the longest distance run on the plan.

I ran the 20 miles in 3:18:28, a bit less than a 10 minute mile pace. The route I use is a 5 mile loop, which allows me to stay relatively close to home and put a water bottle on the front porch. I don't like to carry things when I run, and the bottle on the porch allows me to take a water stop every 5 miles without the hassle of toting a bottle. I also take a gu gel energy pack off the porch every loop.

Last Sunday I was visiting in Endwell and ran the 19 mile run called for by the plan. Rather than mapping out a flat course in Endicott and driving down there for it, I foolishly mapped one starting from the Weis plaza down the hill on Hooper road. This course is a lot hillier than my normal route in Danvers (although I did my best to minimize the hills). As I probably should have expected, it was a little too much and in the 19th mile I tweaked my left calf (the same injury I experienced in August after the Rockport Half Marathon) going up the final hill on Hooper Road along ME High School. Fortunately I had the good sense to shut it down when I first felt the pain in my calf and limped in the final quarter mile to the car. This past week I rode the recumbent bike at work on Tuesday and Wednesday rather than the training runs. I tried out the calf on Thursday in a 5 mile run and finished it with no pain. Same thing again for the 10 mile run yesterday.

I changed the 5 mile Danvers loop I've been running to make it as flat as possible to minimize the chance of injury. Compared to what I ran in Endwell, it is very flat with only a few gentle grades. Today's 20 miles felt noticeably easier than the 19 miles in Endwell last week, and - the most important thing - I finished it without injury, although I am pretty sore.

One interesting thing is that I ran the first three 5 mile loops in a fairly consistent 10 minute mile pace. The last loop I ran in 47:27 for a 9:30 mile pace, although I did not try to increase the pace and in fact made a conscious effort to stay slow to avoid injury. Maybe it's the knowledge that I was in the homestretch that led to an unconscious uptick in pace. In any case it was nice to know I had that in the tank after 15 miles.