20

Saturday
20.0 miles/2:57:55/8:54 average pace
Springwater corridor trail





We drove out to southeast Portland about 9:00 am and parked where we did when we did our 16 miler out here. It was barely drizzling at the start and almost 60 degrees.





I really wanted to have an "easy" run. I know we've been running our long runs kind of fast (for me) and while that has worked great, I didn't want to have a hard 20 miler. There is another 20 miler in two weeks and I told myself and Zach that that can be our fast one. Plus, I've been sore since Thursday's hard run and was pretty tired from the week overall, so a nice easy pace was just what I needed.





Since my little trick of ignoring my watch worked so well on that tempo run I decided to use the same tactic this time, but for the opposite purpose of running slow (and not freaking out about the pace) rather than running fast (and not freaking out about the pace). We were running a straight out and back, so I ignored my watch for the first 10 miles. We stopped about mile 7 to top off our water bottles. There weren't many people out but we were enjoying the fall scenery and chatting. At about mile 9 the paved trail ends and we ran in some mud to mile 10.





At the turnaround, our time was 1:32:11 (9:13 average pace).




It was raining pretty hard at times and I was soaked. My feet were very wet and I was worried about blisters, but otherwise I felt great. That slow pace really paid off and I was ready to pick it up a bit.

We stopped again at a park to refill our water bottles. We ate three GUs- one at mile 6 (chocolate outrage), mile 11 (chocolate mint, my fav!), and mile 16 (espresso love, blech, only ate half).



It continued to rain and we kind of stopped chatting. We started playing games that involved counting our steps and man that was a genius idea. The last few miles flew by. I was feeling really good, like not even tired. Usually over the course of a long run I hit a couple rough patches mentally but this run was cake. I'm super proud of myself for pacing so smartly and having such a great run.



At the finish our time was just under 2:58 which means our second half was 1:25:44, a 6 1/2 minute negative split! Average pace on the second half was 8:34.



total miles for the week: 51.4



Sunday we went for a bike ride down the west bank of the Willamette and explored this new trail. We took our time and enjoyed stretching our legs out. We stopped and had lunch at a little cafe on the river and then headed home for a dip in the hot tub.



North Park Blocks near my house:

Park along the river:

View of city from river:

My legs generally feel fine but there's this slight pain in my left shin/knee that I am not ok with. It's not too bad but in previous years it's become really painful and sucked a lot. I decided yesterday that I would not run today and I'm sticking to it. It actually feels good today but I'm not running. I want to run but I know it's the smart thing to rest. I am going to repeat myself over and over all day as a reminder. :) It'll still be a big week although I won't hit 50. Whatevs. Better to be healthy!

Congrats to Michele who completed the Ford Ironman this weekend. I am in awe of this woman! Talk about inspiring. Way to go Michele!!

Congrats to everyone who ran NYC too. I am so glad to see Paula Radcliffe won and Kara Goucher got 3rd- wow! I'd love to do that marathon someday.

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Have a great week everyone! Oh, I didn't end up dressing up my cat this year. And while he was very happy with that decisions I have no funny pics to share. Sorry!