A Gap in the Market

So as previously mentioned, not a lot of miles this week.
Due to many variables, I didn't get out on Friday or Saturday which was very disappointing.
Today was the last planned 20 miler, with 15 days to go. Gary has no difficulty advocating high mileage right up to the week previous to the marathon, and then the mileage drops off a cliff for the week before.
The weather was forecast for rain, clearing towards afternoon. I tried to leave it as late as possible, but at 1pm I just had to get going or the rest of the day would be gone.
It was still spilling as I headed out. Boston are using Gatorade endurance formula as their sports drink. As I have never had it before, last week when I was in the US I picked up a six pack of Gatorade in the same flavour. It was not endurance formula, but thirst quencher, which is a less strong  formula, but I figured it would give me a good idea if I could stomach it or not. Last thing you want to do on a marathon is taste a new drink for the first time.
So as I went out I was carrying two bottles, one of water, and a Gatorade. I hate carrying drinks!
After a few miles I was thoroughly soaked. I had set the garmin for a 7:25 pace, but for some reason it measured the first mile way too fast at 6:55, which it was not. I reset it, and kept going into the rain.

A thought struck me as I was trodding along. Athletes go to the likes of Sevelle for warm weather training, Madrid and Portugal for altitude training, why don't we market Ireland as a wet weather training destination! There is no shortage of the stuff, and if the rain is not around, it will surely be windy! Genius, no?

Anyway, back to the run, 7:25 was proving a very easy pace, likely as I hadn't run the previous two days and the legs were fresh. The Gatorade was no problem on the stomach at mile 11, and I drank it over the next three miles. Mile 17 and 18 were the fastest at sub 7:10 each, and I finished quite strongly at an average of 7:19 for 20 miles.

Being critical, two things. I had only 18 miles on the legs for the preceding 6 days, and i only ran for less than 2:30hrs. The second point is crucial. I know that the real test comes passing that 2:30 point, on the day I will still have plenty of minutes left to do, and that is what the longer slower runs are designed to simulate.

Shorter faster stuff for this week, and then the taper.