The week of recovery and rest comes to an end :(
Today was the second (of probably three) 20 mile run for the month of August. I decided that once reaching this distance, I'd repeat it a few times as a way to acclimate to it. I picked this distance for a few reasons: (1) it seems many marathon training plans use the 20 mile distance as a plateau of some sort; (2) it took me from March to June (3 months) to go from one to 13 miles - and I went from 13 to 20 in half that time (about six weeks) - so it seemed like a good time to let things catch up a bit; (3) it coincided with my doing 100 miles on the bike; (4) it gives me a chance to really integrate a mid-week legs strength workout in, so that I'm not running on quite so fatigued and possibly still stiff and sore muscles and (5) August can be hot, so waiting until September to continue extending distance, when it'd be a bit cooler, seemed like a good idea.
The previous 20 mile run I did was pretty satisfying. I had taken a walk break for about 0.05 miles every mile, and felt fairly strong throughout, and my pace per mile of about 9:30 was noticably faster than previous long runs (usually > 10 min/mile). Today improved on that, as my average pace was closer to 9 min/mile, yet I was able to maintain my normal long slow distance HR of about 150. I'd like to think that I improved that much, but it was overcast today, and so I have to probably come to grips with the fact that the cooler weather today probably played a significant part in the performance improvement.
But not to give the weather all the credit - I am noticing my target cadence of 180 foot strokes per minute is getting easier. A couple years ago, when I found out that the ideal cadence is about 180, I tried quickening my pace and shortening my stride (I was at about 165-170 at the time), and although I found some benefits, I also found it drove my HR up 5-10 bpm. I guess it is just a matter of getting used to it, or maybe the aerobic conditioning helped in large part by long bike rides has made it so that I can maintain that higher cadence now without driving the HR up. The end result is good news, because the shorter stride definitely helps keep the IT band issues at bay (I notice that if I get sloppy, and my cadence slows down and my stride becomes more labored, I start to feel it rubbing. So in a way a tight IT band is helpful because it is a reminder to shape up and fix my form!) for one, as well as reduces the effort load on the quads. Finally, it ends up resulting in a faster pace - it seems like it forces form to be such that more of the expended effort is put into forward movement, so when I push off, I'm pushing more forward, instead of both up and forward. Efficiency!
The first 10-11 miles were surprisingly comfortable. It was a nice mental place to be, knowing that I was halfway through and hadn't yet started to feel like I was slogging through it. It dawned on me that the 1.5 hr midweek runs recently may have a part to play in that - I do them with no walk breaks - so when I do a long run and actually do take walk breaks every mile, my muscles have been getting used to running for 90 minutes with no break, so running for 8-9 minutes between every break is a cake-walk! Unfortunately that didn't last much past 11 miles, as I started to meet up with the old friend, tightness. I stretched out a bit, but from miles 11-20, each mile got progressively more difficult. At mile 19, I was thinking 'one more mile...', Rocky-style ("one more round"). It was still not a terribly difficult mile, just annoying because the hips were tightening up. All in all, though - it was a pretty comfortable long run.
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