no thank you...

Sunday morning:

I was the 1st person in our Rosemont health club Sunday morning as the doors opened promptly at 7am and I was running on the threadmill by 7:05am! I was forced to run my 20 miler on my favorite 'mill because it was an absolute downpour all night & morning as I played it safe due to outside icyness issues...

The FIRST program wanted me to run my 3rd - 20 miler at a 8:30 pacing. I broke my 20 miler up into a 3 segments of 6.75, 6.75 and 6.50 miles because the threadmills shut-down at 60 minutes. I had a short 30 second break to refill my waterbottle, take a eGel and re-boot the 'mill between each split. Below are my mileage splits with mile pace, average & max heart rate per time:

6.75 miles -57:52 - 8:34 - AHR 124bpm - MHR 134bpm
6.75 miles -56:25 - 8:21 - AHR 129bpm - MHR 135bpm
6.50 miles -53:43 - 8:15 - AHR 135bpm - MHR 140bpm

Total 20 mile run time was 2:48:01 for a mile pace of 8:24 with an average heart rate at 129bpm which I acheived running on a one degree incline the whole distance. I had 4 - eGels; one before starting and every 5 miles after that plus I went through 3 - 26 ounce large biking waterbottles because it was so stinking hot & muggy in the health club. Because of the abrupt outside temp change and the massive size of our fieldhouse in the health club theres no way they can regulate this correctly...arrrrrrrrrrrgh!

With 2 and half miles to go the heat & humidity with the lack of air movement pushed me into a small "bonk" zone which I recognized immediately as I backed off the pacing to survive till the end...even though this winter is what a typical Chicagoland winter is somewhat like it sure makes it a challenge when it comes to meeting your marathon running training goals!

Please don't let me have to run another long run on the 'mill

b

da health club...http://www.wccfitness.com/