An EPIC run

First, I think a certain IronJen needs a massive high 5!!!!!! You ROCK Jen.

I had an aMAZing long run this morning. Seriously- like "I feel so great I wish my marathon was two weeks away" amazing. I'm scared of maintaining this awesome feeling, and by the responsibility of taking care of my fitness for the next three months. 12 weeks. A LOT can happen in that time.

Anyway- my run. First 20-miler on the schedule. I was nowehere near as nervous about it as I was last time round! In fact, I got to bed after midnight last night after watching two movies (one Film Fest, one Simpons!) and eating a dirty mixed veg kebab for dinner (mm.. hummus!). I convinced A to do a mega-hilly route, largely so I wouldn't feel bad about slowing her down, and also because I wanted to maximise time on feet. I know that my training for Rotorua was massively assisted by long, sloooow runs with C, and I know I should aim for goal pace, and not aim to beat it!

So anyway, I mapped out this route, which is basically a tiki tour of Wellington.*** Over the course of the run, we hit no fewer than seventeen suburbs, with 3 big climbs, one looong descent, and very few flat bits. One of the big climbs (the steepest and windiest) was from mile 19 to the finish at 20.62. A far cry from our usual trundles around the bays!

We finished in 3:17, 9:33 pace. Right on the lower limit of goal pace (9:33 to 9:48). I felt strong pretty much the whole way and even (dare I say it) led up some of the hills (though A kicked my sorry butt on the long downhill and on the flats, and dragged me up that bitch of a final hill!) The varied terrain (or the company, or something) kept me from getting bored, and at 2:23 I felt better than I have felt at 2:23 for a long time. My breakfast lasted me amazingly well- I had a drink in Aro valley, but was nowhere near as dependent on my sport beans as I sometimes am.

And the coolest thing? When we got home, A said "that's the hardest I've worked since the marathon." That's the 3:43 marathon she ran last month (and she was on track for 3:35 until she hit the headwind at 32k). A 3:43 marathoner was working HARD and I was keeping up?! I feel cool :-)

The rest of the day was spent at the film festival, apart from a break for some shopping and a coffee with my sisters. We saw Black Book last night (GREAT Dutch film), My Best Friend (typically sweet French comedy) this afternoon and Death of a President (so cool- fake documentary about a Dubya assassination). It was a great way to spend a Saturday, and I'm very glad my P got the ball rolling on getting out film festival tickets!!

In other training:
- speedwork is crap. first 1k rep was 4:19 and instead of picking up I slowed every rep until I gave up when I hit 4:30 at rep 4 (of 5). Yuck
- tempo this week followed my typical pattern. hideous headwind and embarrassing "out" split (15:43 for 3k!!!!!), glorious tailwind and satisfying "back" split (14:05- so not bad at all). All up, 6k (instead of 4mi) in 29:48, for 7:57 pace (goal was 7:55)

****For those of you who are in Welly/know Welly, and who can appreciate the route (mapmyrun just doesn't do those hills justice- in fact it doesn't look quite right to me):
Run down through Roseneath to Oriental Bay for a couple of miles
Past the railway station to Thorndon Quay (where I saw the jog squad!) and along to Kaiwharawhara/Ngaio Gorge Road (flat from mile 2 to mile 5)
Up to Ngaio (about 1.5 miles of uphill)
Down through Crofton Downs
Up behind Wilton to Karori (all undulating with some reasonable hills)
Down Raroa Road to Aro Valley (longish- well, a mile or so, downhill)
Up Ohiro Road into Brooklyn (shorter sharper uphill- but still a good few minutes)
Doooown Ohiro/Happy Valley Rd to Owhiro Bay (around 3 miles down)
Around to Island Bay (flat)
Up through Berhampore to Newtown (gradual uphill- not easy though, and particularly not at 17-18!)
Up Constable Street to Alexandra Rd (0.5 mile uphill)
Alexandra Rd up to HOME (it's around 1.5 miles I think, you gain over 500 ft, and it took us about 19 minutes- I think that indicates how steep it is!)