And what a difference the weather makes, cooler temps welcoming us into September; a perfect sunrise across Lake Nokomis to start our 18 mile run. There was little to no breeze as we worked our way along the Twin Cities Marathon route along Minnehaha Parkway, up the west side of the Mississipi River to the Lake Street Bridge, then back down along the St. Paul side to Summit Avenue. We followed Summit for a few miles before hitting our nine mile turnaround point.
Again: so dramatically different than last Saturday's run, and yet another example why you can't put too much stock into any one day, good, bad, or otherwise. Hard to articulate all of the many reasons why today's run was so awesome. It just was. Felt fantastic.
Over the last four or five miles, without even realizing it, I started to peel away from my steady group of runners. Didn't have the Garmin (forgot it, of course) so I can't say exactly how fast I was going, but it was most definitely faster than my standard "long slow distance" pace. Maybe closer to a nine minute mile than the 10:00 or 10:30.
Oh. And the ice bath afterwards? Getting used to these now, and really think they've been helping out with the recovery. Was able to last a solid 20 minutes -- probably could have gone longer, but figured that was probably more than enough time in a cold tub filled with an 18 lb bag of ice.
The marathon is less than a month away now. All systems go!
Today's run: 18 miles in about 3:25:00
Total mileage: 340 miles
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