Day 7, Week 9: Running 20 miles outside is hard.

So I mentioned yesterday I had a little 20 miler on tap for today.  And it got done, even though I never believe I will actually run all twenty of those miles whenever one pops up on the training schedule.

I also mentioned yesterday that today was supposed to be a ball of rainy suck.  And it was.

Buh.

The rain finally let up at about 2 PM, so I took the large dog for an 8-mile spin. This bought me a few hours of large-dog calm until he decides it's time to eat more drywall to punish me for some human transgression.

After dropping large dog off, I went for a 12-mile spin on my own into the misty afternoon.  To be honest, I had no idea if I was even going to make it to the 20 mile mark.  I convinced myself to make it to 15 and see how I felt, which is really just a lie I tell myself to keep going.  But it's a lie I always believe, so hey-you do what works.

During those 12 miles I was quite unhappy to run into the wind for way too many miles, with a light rainy spray misting my face causing drops to fall from my eyelashes.  This made it look like I was crying my way through my miles, which was not the case.  I was really grimacing annoyingly the whole way instead.

Also during those 12 miles I was very excited to see that there was still some corn left standing.  You know...for when those moments arise on a run when you realize you shouldn't have eaten that high fiber muffin earlier in the day.

But what's notable about this 20 miler is my pace.  The training plan called for a 9:50 pace.  With how tired my legs were from all my too-fast running this week, I decided that anything under a 10 minute/mile pace would be just fine for this run.  And as you can see from the first picture that happened.  But, because I am stupid, I never think I can run those types of paces for my long run even though I'm planning on busting out a 9:20 for 26.2 miles in a few weeks here.  I kept plugging along just kind of hoping that under 10 min/mile would happen, along with grimacing annoyingly as rainy mist fell from my eyelashes.

I don't know why I never believe I can do these workouts...and then I go and do them.  And then I also go and have my fastest 20 mile training run ever and get to do the most awkward fist-pump photo in the universe.

Let the summarization of learnings begin:

• I didn't want to do this run.  At all.  I wanted to curl up in the recliner and listen to audiobooks all day.
• But then I realized that marathons require you to run 20+ miles so I got up and got dressed.
• When I'm tired during a run those are the best faces you get from me.
• When you read a training plan, give each workout a try, even if you don't nail the pace or the distance.  Don't give up on a run before you try it.
• If I could do just one long run without any rainy suck, that would be great.

Tomorrow's workout:  Gonna do me some upper body weights-lifting big this week again.