Sunday I had a 16-18 mile run planned. And my shoulder was feeling bad. I teetered on the edge of doing the run or bagging it and spending a couple hours on the elliptical to at least get my muscles prepared for the 23 miler I have coming up. The 16-18 miler was scheduled 11 days before the big run (officially named: The Run for Glory: Part II Maine Edition, check out RFG: Part I), and was supposed to be my most important and longest preparation for my 23 mile run. My big concern was not being aerobically fit for 23 miles (or just under 3 hours of running) as my cycling had that aspect covered. The issue is...ready for a surprise?...injury. 23 miles on 7 weeks of running is an extremely sensitive scenario, regardless of what type of athlete you are. If your body can't handle the pounding, then you're toast. I don't have any intent to finish the run completely dead or fending off pain - I have a really big season to look forward to, and I begin racing in March (yes...March!).
I was going to be running a good portion of it with Owen Lisa, a local triathlete who puts up an intimidating 9:02 Ironman (Arizona 2011). He's just getting back into training and had no issue with running 15 miles at something sub-8:00, as he can throw down a 3:15 Marathon fresh off the bike. Did I mention his bike was the fastest non-pro time by something disgusting like 15 minutes? He's good. Damn good. But he's a great guy.
I took off to meet Owen down Tuttle road in the 6F temps with wind, giving a glorious -10F with windchill at 9:30AM. Our plan was sub-8:00/mi pace with doing whatever was comfortable. Luckily I have a decent running background and wasn't completely boring him...and more importantly, my shoulder felt FINE after being in moderate discomfort for the past 3 days. I naturally clipped off a couple sub-7:30's before meeting him, and the pace once we joined each other at 2.5mi stayed right about that level. Over the next few miles we settled into 7:10-20 pace and it held right there. A couple times I asked if we could ease up slightly, and we did. But the pace only dropped for one mile (which was an elevation gain of about 100ft). Up Sligo and out toward Main St in Cumberland we cruised for under 7:10 until he was at his house, making it a 15 miler for him. Then I was off to home, a bit under 5 miles solo to finish it off. My quads were showing solid sign of fatigue (thanks to 14+ hours cycling Mon-Sat) but the shoulder was good. I tossed in a GU at 16.5 and just rolled home, closed the run in a series of very low 7min miles. Hit the last 0.5mi in sub-7 pace.
The run ended up excellent and a big confidence boost as I averaged 7:16 and my goal for the 23 miler is 7:23 (to finish in my 22 mile time of 2:50:00). I'm looking forward to a last few days of killer training, a bit of backing off, then the 23 miler.
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