T-2 to LA, the last long run..

Today the last long run before LA. Originally I intended to do a 10 today (Sat) and the long run tomorrow, but the forecast was for rain tomorrow so we decided to switch the runs around.


I felt pretty good after a full rest day yesterday, and so decided to push at a high effort level.


The weather was great and there were a bunch of Team in Training people out doing their 10 mile run for San Diego (some doing Halfs some fulls) I ran into older fellow and struck up 
a conversation, being careful to do his pace which was about 11:30 (you can see that in the splits below for miles 8 and 9). He's doing the Big Sur in May..someday I'll have to try that one but it does have a mongo hill.


After we reached his turnaround I said goodbye and poured on the coal again. This was my first 20+ run with my Kinvaras and I was curious to see how my feet would react in the late stages of the run.


Here's my splits:

Split	Dist	Pace	HR	Cadence
1	1.00	10:27	111	84
2	1.00	09:18	120	87
3	1.00	10:00	118	84
4	1.00	09:32	121	86
5	1.00	08:58	125	87
6	1.00	09:27	120	85
7	1.00	09:39	123	86
8	1.00	11:39	111	82 yakking 8)
9	1.00	11:48	110	82 yakking
10	1.00	09:31	123	86
11	0.19	09:28	124	86  hit the lap button here by mistake?
12	1.00	09:28	124	86
13	1.00	09:34	124	86
14	1.00	09:27	124	86
15	1.00	09:26	128	87
16	1.00	09:49	127	86
17	1.00	09:31	130	87
18	1.00	09:36	130	87
19	1.00	09:25	131	87
20	1.00	09:17	135	87
21	1.00	09:20	135	86
22	1.00	09:02	140	89 go time!
23	0.50	08:58	143	89

Total distance 21.69 m
Pace 9:42 m/m
HR 126
Cadence 86


I felt really good....it was a hard run..probably 8.5/10 effort, but you'll see there was a constant pace and I was able to kick it up a bit at the end. I felt like I could have held a constant 9:30 pace for a full 26.2 with minimal fade...what with a taper and race excitement giving a little extra boost. So I think this is around my marathon pace right now...which is good..not quite as good as July but darn good considering my lower mileage.


I was pleased to see that the shoes gave me no problems and my form was just awesome. I had no problems holding a fast cadence even at the end of the run. The strength training and the hills are a Very Good Thing.


Sometimes you zone-out during a run and think about all sorts of things. But not for this run..the last 10 miles of this run I was in the zone. The miles just sped by while I focused internally on running as perfectly as possible and imagining I was in the last few miles of the LA marathon.


I drank two bottles of water and ate 3 GUs plus 8 clifbloks. I noticed I started to feel a bit hungry at the end of the run. The temps were 55 to 61F..it felt much warmer at the end as there was full sun...could have sworn it was 70F+


I did finally get my Peregrine trail shoes....going to try them out on an easy hike to loosen up this afternoon.