More Decent Long Runs

I posted in mid-December about 4 long runs: alternating indoor and outdoor runs. The last run I wrote about on Dec 12th was a GREAT run, and I wondered if it wasn’t because I was mixing up the training by going indoor then outdoor then indoor then outdoor. But who knows.

My 3 long runs after that have been good (all indoor too), which brings us up-to-date:

On Dec 19, I did 11.8 miles at 6:56 pace with the middle 6 miles “at pace” from 9.0 mph up to 10.1 mph (raising 0.5 mph every 0.5 miles). Pace miles averaged 6:17.0/mile. Nothing fancy, felt pretty crappy in the opening miles, but got through it well.

On Dec 26, I did 12.0 miles at 6:51 pace with the middle 6.5 miles “at pace” from 9.0 mph up to 10.2 mph (and up to 10.3 for the last 0.4 miles). This was a 1/2 mile farther than my normal faster 6 miles, and those pace miles averaged 6:14.9/mile. It always feels good keeping the pace up for an extra little bit!

And 2 days ago on Jan 2, I did 11.5 miles at 6:55 pace with the middle 6 pace miles from 9.0 up to 10.1 mph just like 2 weeks ago. Only this time, I raised the incline up to “2” for 60 sec in the middle of each pace mile (so 6 times throughout those 6 miles).

Last winter, my “go to” long run had 6 pace miles in the middle from 8.9 mph to 10.0 mph, and I’m making 9.0 to 10.1 mph the standard for this winter. Small steps in the right direction for this aging body! :)

My long runs have been feeling good lately, and I CRUSHED my 2022 running milage, which I’ll have more about in a “year in review” post - that might take me another week or 2 to write, so stay tuned. Happy 2023!