Second 20 Miler

My first 20 miler in this training cycle was the Air Force Marathon.  You can read the race recap here.

This past Saturday night my parents graciously watched the baby overnight so Dave and I could have a date night and then Dave could join me on my second 20 miler (riding his bike/providing support).  The plan was a 10 mile warm up (yes you read that right - TEN MILES!!), a couple miles of building, some miles at race pace, a few miles faster than marathon race pace, and then a cool down. 

I started off pretty well with the first 10 miles at an 8:45 average pace.  It was windy and cold, which is perfect weather for me, but I was struggling to get my pace down to what I thought it should be.  My build miles were at 8:31.  My race pace miles were an 8:24 pace.  I believe I need an 8:23 pace to get that elusive 3:40 Boston qualifying time.  Note, I wore a Garmin but did all of this pacing by feel.  Being able to "feel" an 8:24 is pretty darn close to race pace.  The faster miles were at an 8:02 pace.  I felt great during those miles, although, I'm not sure I could have managed that pace for a long, extended period of time - i.e. 20 freakin' miles!  Finally, my cool down miles were at an 8:45 pace. 

Overall, this 20 miler went great, albeit, not as fast as I would have liked.  One more and then it's time to fly!