This was supposed to be my first eighteen miler of the winter season, though by no means the last. I was up in Cambridge and due to timings ended up running Saturday morning. As such I'd only had 36 hours rest since Thursday's six miles, and due to the travelling hadn't eaten a full dinner the Friday evening.
Despite this I had a couple of gels and two litres of water on my back and so I entered full of optimism, planning to head out to Milton along the river for nine miles and then back along the same way. As per usual I went off far too hard, only about 7:45 but too much for a run that long. This wasn't the machoism of the previous weekend, I just couldn't keep myself under control despite feeling fairly laboured throughout.
Eventually I settled somewhat, and went on my merry way, heart rate at 180ish. I passed over a nice bridge somewhere near milton, exposing me to the wind that was already starting to build in advance of the storm to come a couple of days later.
At 7 and a half miles I turned back home, still trying to get the pace and heart rate down. I took my second gel at 11 miles, though managed to spill most of it down myself, badly enough washing my hands in cam water seemed a good idea. As I got closer to home I started to struggle, especially when the head wind hit, but seeing crews I knew on the river helped to pick me up and propel me back to the boat house.
Unfortunately when I got there I had only run 14 and a half miles but felt like I should be stopping. I motivated myself to head back up the river a bit, but with no clear idea where I wanted to head I lost a lot of motivation, and essentially ground to a halt at 16 miles.
Overall I wasn't too disappointed. Though this run wasn't as long as planned this was still my longest week for a while with a total of 28 miles. The pace and heart rate both need some work, but I'm getting there and it didn't leave me too broken the rest of the weekend. I need to make sure I eat well the evening before runs in future though to fuel the engine better.
Time: 2 hours 17 minutes
Distance: 16.08 miles
Pace: 08:33 min/mile
Heart rate: 177 bpm
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