First 20-miler done! I'm very happy to report, it went well. I had my doubts throughout the week. I felt tired, fatigued and waking up this morning to another humid day, I had my doubts about this 20-miler. My last long run (18 last weekend) was humid as well and I ended up finishing around 8:40 pace. I was good with that. My goal was to bring these long race paces to where it should be (8:20) by the end of August. So, today my goal was 8:30's or somewhere close to that. Well... I was pleasantly surprised throughout the run when I kept checking and my average pace was gradually getting lower! I ended up with 8:18 as my final average pace! On a hot, humid day!!! Yipee! I'm extremely happy with that. I will say... I did stop at every water stop possible and sort of walked around a bit, stretching out my arms and back. But when I was running, it felt smooth and strong and a nice, steady pace. This was a great confidence booster. A couple other notes about my run - I had 2 gels, 1 at mile 6.5 and the other at mile 14 and that seemed to work well. I had water at least every 2 miles sometimes shorter and wanted to note this because it worked out well - no GI issues and I didn't feel dehydrated like last week.
Also, a short note about my back - I have noticed a bit of aching in my lower back. I did a little research on some common lower back soreness with runners and I'm going to ice it and continue to strengthen the area with my core work. Hopefully that takes care of it. Sounds like a minor problem that will go away by taking care of it. I have a nice rest day tomorrow and back at it on Monday.
Good night!
