FINAL TWENTY BEFORE PORTLAND

Springwater again. Yayyyyyyyyyyyy!

Saturday was my last twenty mile training run before the Portland Marathon on October 5th. It was also the first time I have done two twenty mile runs in back to back weeks. Overall, it went really well! I'd venture to say it was the "best" twenty miler I've had so far in terms of how I felt during and after the run. It definitely gave me a boost of confidence about my chances of PRing in a few weeks.

After last weekend's terrible twenty mile brunch run and Pints to Pasta the day after I decided an easier week was in order. I didn't cut back on mileage, but all my runs during the week were of the easy to moderate variety. I started to beat myself up at one point for not doing a speed workout, but I reminded myself I just ran a 44:45 10k and had a twenty mile run coming up again. No need to be stupid!

This run didn't start out on the greatest footing because the route again took us on the Springwater Trail. When we all gathered around at 8am and they told us where we'd be running I let out an unintentionally loud "Oh, for fucks sake!" that garnered a few looks. Haha, oops. Anyways, thankfully only miles 8-12 were the terrible part of the trail that I hate.

So yeah, the run went well! Honestly, nothing much to note. Four aid stations along the way (two that you hit each way on the out and back). I felt pretty dang good for twenty and a race the weekend before followed up with 19 miles during the week. Didn't start to hurt until mile sixteen and even then it wasn't as bad as it usually is. Just annoying muscle aching that was easily ignored. The last mile kind of sucked, but it always sucks, regardless of distance.

Overall though I think it might be the best twenty miler to date. I felt pretty good the rest of the day and my legs didn't really even feel sore after a few hours. Chalk it up as a victory. Thinking back to last summer, my three twentys went like this: terrible, terrible, slightly less terrible. This year they went: decent, terrible, slightly more than decent. So improvement!

Last year my final twenty miler was 5 weeks before the marathon. This year it will be 4 weeks (that was my last twenty). My next three weekends will be like so: 16, 8, RACE. Overall I feel like the 20 miler was in a better spot this year and that overall I am faster and more capable than last summer. Whether it will all come together on race day is still up to the running gods, but I think I have a pretty good shot at a good race.

Final 20-miler: 20.02 miles in 3:15:29, 9:46/mile.