On Target

After Thursday's pacing gig for the half marathon, Friday was an easy 6 and Saturday an easy 7.

Today was planned to be 20 miles, and with a nice day forecast, there were no excuses.
The plan was 7:30 for the first 10 miles, with 7:20 for the second 10 miles, so perfectly doable.
I had toyed with the idea of  a slightly faster second 10 miles towards 7:10, but as this was my first real 20 miles in quite some time, I wanted to err on the conservative side.
I took two small 300ml bottles with me, one of water, and another of water and Ribena. I hate carrying water as it is the same as carrying hand weights. I placed the cordial bottle at four miles out, which would be about 11 on the way back, and consumed the other water over the first 6 miles.

The initial pace seemed easy enough, and I had to try and hold back a little. At the end of the first 10 miles I was 40 seconds up, so average of  7:26. I upped the pace then, and at 11 miles I picked up my cordial, which thankfully had no been stolen like the last time!
Pushing the pace up actually felt easier than trying to do the slower pace. While the pace was good, the legs started to hurt at 16 miles which I am guessing was due to lack of any meaningful long runs over 13 miles.
I pushed on fairly alright, although at exactly 20 miles I was happy it was over. The pace was still ok, but the legs hurt. I always ask myself could I have pushed on for more, yes I could, not easily though.
At the end, the average for the 20 was 7:23 with a current 'target' pace of 7:20 for the marathon.

62 miles for the week was a good result with a rest day included, and the 20 mile run was good to get in. Two more of those should be doable before the big day, and depending on how those go and the mileage for those weeks, maybe the 'target' might shift slightly.