Best Long Run EVER!

My running has been STRONG lately. I set a 5 mile PR and a 10K PR last month. The month before, I PRed a 2x2 mile workout that I've been doing for 15 years. Earlier that same month, I felt like I had the best track workout of my life. 2024 is shaping up to be a good running year so far!!

My long run this week was another golden one. I did my normal long run route that's a big out-and-back along the river:

Running some harder "pace miles" from split 5 through split 17.
(Those are all half-mile splits.)

I didn't feel great starting... I just felt like I was slogging through some easier miles. Then it came time to pick up the pace, and I ran a decent 3:10 and 3:12 for my first 2 half miles (a 6:22 mile). And then I dropped them down from there. I hit the turn-around AND THEN RAN THE FINAL 3 MILES WITH ALL 6 HALF-MILE SPLITS BEING UNDER 3:00!! I've never done that before! Here were my half-mile splits of my harder 6 miles in the middle of this 12 mile run:

3:10, 3:12, 3:03, 3:05, 3:05, 3:00, 2:59, 2:59, 2:57, 2:58, 2:59, 2:55 = 36:27 (6:04.5/mile)

18:38 first 3, 17:49 last 3!

Two of my best long runs before this one had final 3 miles in 18:01 and 17:59, and those splits were all over the place - many over and many under 3:00 (the 17:59 had 3 under 3:00 and 3 over 3:00).

I remember it used to be AMAZING if I could keep the pace miles under 37:00, and now I'm doing that often.

In red are my final 3 miles. FAST! And consistent!!


My pace shows lots of consistency after the turn-around (after the quick/deep spike in speed).

I think 6:04 for my pace miles is a PR. Here's a look at a few posts about my long runs with pace miles over the last 2 years:

Early in 2022, I posted about a good long run with 6 harder miles at 6:14 pace.

A little later in 2022, I posted about breaking 6:10 pace for those harder 6 miles (6:08 pace) as part of a long run for maybe the first time ever.

A year and a half later in the summer of 2023, I got those harder 6 miles down to 6:07 pace.

And now near the middle of 2024, I hit 6:04 for my pace miles! And including this last fast long run, 5 out of my last 6 long runs have had pace miles that were sub-6:10! When about 2 years ago, I was happy to have gotten under 6:10 for one of the first times ever!! Life is good.