Longest training run to date

Easter Sunday my longest run to date, a planned route that would take in local villages with a drink stop at mile 10 via home;

19 Mile Training Run

First having to contend with the loss of an hours sleep with the commencement of british summer time, it was a pleasure to wake up to a bright sunny day. Although still cold, the sight of the sun which has been rare and the thought that I'd have to run with sun glasses put me in good spirit. This run was to test my natural instinct for my marathon pace, although Garmin on wrist I was not going to focus on the time but track distance.

At mile 5 which was where I found myself running into Newton Blossomvillle I had a great sensation of feeling good and my mind was flooded with positive thoughts. I had made the decision to run without my MP3 player in an attempt to find myself in the moment and it appeared to have worked. I had concentrated on my surroundings, my running style, how I felt and that moment was achieved. Gel strategy in place, my first taken at the hour marker with the second to form part of my pit stop break at mile 10 along with hydration.

Entering the second half of the run, a route that I had done on a number of occasssions found me pushing on with a sense of not long now till the end. This I thought was good, a strong mental attitude even though I faced another 9 miles. All was good until I entered the part of the route that took me cross country, not a long stretch but a stretch that seemed to drain the energy from my legs. Completing this section left me with 2.5 miles to go so I took my final gel to gain a finishing boost. My quads felt the strain of the final miles which had me thinking "I must do some hill rep work!" nothing new as I'd been saying this to myself since the start of training but have not been inspired to do this type of session.

I finally finished in 2hrs 57:46 minutes, my assessment being that it had been a positive run, the weather great, the distance great but the pace lacking. My average pace had been 30 seconds off my target pace of 8:45 minute miles to achieve a sub 4 hour marathon. There's some work to be done in readiness for my final 20 mile run in 2 weeks before the welcomed taper.