Had a great training run today, 23 miles of leg busting running out to Pill and Portbury, really felt the buzz afterwards. In fact, I covered the distance quicker than I ever have, and that includes my three rubbish marathons, and this was just training and on a hilly course. The marathons have been relatively flat and today's run was most definitely not flat. Really had to grind it out from Portbury up through to Failand on country lanes that take in the top of the hill just above Failand. Once I was there it was mostly downhill or flat, apart from a couple of miles around the Ashton Plantation loop which has another bad hill. Didn't hit the wall as such but I did have slight wobble at about 20 miles and had to mentally focus hard to keep going. Got through that and then picked up the pace to 7 minute miles, the fastest of the whole run, for the last few miles. The calves held up great, although the left one twinged a bit on the way up from Portbury but after that it was fine. Finished off with 15 minutes cooling down on the exercise bike at the gym.
I had my doubts that I could get myself ready in time to run Luton but now I know I'm ready. Luton is supposed to be a bit hilly and with three laps you get the hill three times. So my hilly long runs are perfect preparation. I feel I am totally ready for it. I should be able to hit 3:10 no problem. I don't want to go any faster than that at this time so that I'm not totally broken after and then I can run some good races over the winter period. With a good winter behind me I will be ready for a sub three attempt in the Spring. If everything goes to plan I shall be gracefully retiring from marathon running and looking forward towards duathlon/triathlon.
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