16 Miles is FAR!

Workout: Fast Finish Long Run: 14 to 16 miles

Holy cow. I haven’t run 16 miles since the Marathon. That was freaking far, but a good boost of self confidence. It was another great run!

First of all I ran with a new group today, the Grand Rapids Running Club. They’re based out of GR which is a little closer. They were great, just your typical happy runners. It was a good sized group, maybe 70 people, of all ages and abilities. I think they are all training for the River Bank Run, although some had other races on the agenda as well.

I fell in with Allison & Bob, a big shout out to them. They were clipping along around 8:50’s which was a little faster than I was suppose to run (9:00-10:00) but close enough and I was happy to have the company. There were two basic groups of runners, one running 5 miles and one running 9. I was running with the 9 milers and we missed the turn-around so did closer to 10. After we finished I stopped for just about 3 minutes and then took off on my own again and did 6 more miles out and back to get my 16 in for the day. The great part was although I was running by myself, there were still a bunch of runners on the course. I think it was other people getting in additional mileage like me, and also I think some of them were Team In Training which was having their group run as well.

It was such a beautiful day. The sun was out for the entire run and it was in the mid 20’s. The course was a little more rolling than I would have hopped for but everyone tells me hills are good for me. Well I had plenty of them today.

At the end of the run I was suppose to run at my goal pace for the last 2 miles (8:00/m). I was able to keep it up for a mile but after 15 miles my legs were weary and I dialed it back a little. But the good news I got all 16 in and had great experience. I’ll definitely run with this crew again.

I am so pumped up after this week. I feel the training program is great and I will be ready for Indy in May. More than that though, I think I’ll be OK for a full in the fall.

16:39 miles/2:29:08/Avg 9:05