20 Miles at 9:00 Minute Miles

Quote: "Your weekly long run is the best training to avoid hitting the wall. By doing progressively longer runs each week, your body's capacity to store more glycogen within the muscles increases. By increasing your glycogen stores, you'll be able to maintain your pace and hopefully push off the onset of fatigue. In addition, the long runs teach the body to tap into and utilize energy reserves from fat storage sites after the glycogen stores have been depleted." --Christine Luff, About.com guide

Today is my first 20-miler for my upcoming "2010 Rock n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon!"  Eventually, I'll be doing a total of five 20 milers during the next 12 weeks.  My future 20 milers will become progressively faster.

My scheduled workout is from the book, "Runner's World, Run Less, Run Faster," if you own the book I'm on the "Boston Marathon Qualifying Training Program For Men 45 To 49 (3:30)," Week 12, pg 229. I'm 58 years old and have already qualified for Boston twice in the past and don't plan on running Boston again soon, currently I'm striving for a personal record of 3:30, hence I'm training with this Men 45 to 49 (3:30) schedule.

Long Run
Life Fitness Treadmill set at a negative <2% decline.
20 miles @ 9:00 minute miles (Overall time: 3 hours)

Average heart rate: 159 bpm.  Cardiac Drift: 173 bpm.  (Note: my maximum heart rate is 188 bpm)  My cardiac drift is still too high; I'm only running one minute slower than my planned marathon pace of 8:00 minute miles.  Hopefully, my body will acclimate to this faster training speed before the marathon itself.

My feet and legs were very sore after my run, took ibuprofen and an ice bath before I took a long nap.  I've decided that tomorrow, Sunday, will be a rest day.

I wore my racing shoes, "ASICS DS Trainers," for my Long Run.  Maybe I should have worn my stability shoes, "NB 729," instead?  I might have been less sore if I wore more stable shoes.  Perhaps the negative -2% decline on the treadmill is too much pounding, maybe 1 negative -1% decline would be less destructive to my body?

Next week my Long Run will be 18 miles, BUT, next Saturday I'll be racing the "LVTC Forest Challenge 11 Miler."  How and when am I going to squeeze in the 18 miler into my training schedule?  Maybe after my race next Saturday I'll add an additional seven miles on the trails?