It's about keeping pace and letting your legs go

Saturday's long rainy run

After last weekends long run going so bad I knew I needed a week of building confidence.  The best way for me to do this is to focus on power and pace.  Before becoming a distance runner, I prided myself on being a quick and powerful runner.  This was a necessity for a soccer player, especially a defender.

Tuesday:
So Tuesday I went back to my roots and did an agility workout with some long sprints.

• Run to the local high school track (0.5 miles)
• Dynamic warm-up (10 min)
• Ladder work-out (10 yard ladder, jog back)
• 1 foot in each (2x)
• 2 feet in each (2x)
• Hops-both feet in each (2x)
• Hops- right foot only (2x)
• Hops- left foot only (2x)
• Side shuffle (2x)
• Side shuffle high knees (2x)
• 2 feet in 1 foot out (2x)
• Hops 2 feet out, 2 feet in (hopscotch style-2x)
• Squat hops (2x)
• Side to side hops- 10 yard burst 
• Quick feet -20 yard burst
• two feet 20 secs lateral
• two feet 20 secs horizontal
• single foot 20 secs lateral (2x)
• single foot 20 secs horizontal (2x)
• 100s x 4
• 400s x 2
• Light jog back home (0.5 miles)

Wednesday:

Light 2 mile shake out run.

10 minute abs and push-ups

Stretch out

Thursday:

Tempo Run: 

10 minute dynamic warm-up

4 miles at 7:34 pace

Cool down

Stretch

Saturday:

My focus for my long run this week was pace and not distance. My goal was to run a half marathon at my Goal Marathon Pace.

It rained pretty much the entire run. But the positive was that it was a lot cooler and less humid than my previous long runs.  I reached my goal and felt good the whole run. I just let my legs go. I wasn't focused on saving energy or worried I wouldn't get through the run. I don't even remember looking down at my watch until about mile 11 to make sure I was on pace.  

I ended the week with a little over 27.5 miles.  Time to recover and prepare for next weeks 20 miler.