The Week Leading up to My Last Long Run

Tomorrow is the Mock Marathon, which will be about 22 miles. It is the last long run before the Route 66 Marathon. My plan is to do the first 15 or 16 miles slow and then try to hit marathon pace for the last 6 or 7 miles. It may be a little warm tomorrow, so I may run a tad slower.

Here is what I ran this week. I was wearing my brand new Garmin 305 on each run, so I have a bit more information than usual.

Monday: 4.76 miles at the Springfield Nature Center at night with a headlamp. Avg pace 8:37/mile. Avg heart rate 150. Max heart rate 170. Total ascent 753 feet.

Tuesday: 10.05 miles at the Springfield Nature Center at night with a headlamp. Avg pace 9:01/mile. Avg heart rate 149. Max heart rate 166. Total ascent 2111 feet.

Wednesday: 5 miles with Carlos on the Galloway Trail in Springfield. Avg pace 8:40/mile. Avg heart rate 140. Max heart rate 158. Total ascent 570 feet. After the hilly runs on Monday and Tuesday, this was a welcome easy run. Heart rate stayed low except for about the last quarter mile.

Thursday: 8.4 miles with Rachel and Patty from RunnersWorld to 11th & Riverside and back. Avg pace 9:16/mile. Avg heart rate 140. Max heart rate 161. This was mostly an easy run, but Rachel and I picked up the pace in the sixth mile to just over 8 minutes/mile.

Friday: no running, but I did bike about 18 miles at a fairly easy pace.

Saturday: not here yet, but it will be about 22 miles.

Total running miles for week: assuming all goes as planned on Saturday, it will be about 50.

I would like to congratulate all the RunnersWorld runners who had a good first Tulsa Run or who ran new PRs. Woohoo to all of you! Of those who run regularly with the RunnersWorld marathon training group, the following are what I believe are the top 10. Sorry if I overlooked somebody.

Kurt Kruskop 1:00:24

Fred Isaacs 1:03:27

Brian Hoover 1:05:06

Brian Simpson 1:06:59

Andy Karlin 1:07:01

Curtis Roberts 1:07:09

David Sargent 1:10:45

Rachel Mitchell 1:14:08

Kaci Michael 1:14:59

Jarrett Shalhoop 1:15:21

There are many not in that top 10 that also had great races, but there's no way I can list them all. I would like to say "way to go!" to Natalie Banker (1:28:16) because she is in nursing school with my daughter, Becky.