Louisville Downtown Doubler 30K

Sunday's Louisville Downtown Doubler 30K went according to plan, but I'm a little more sore than I wanted to be two days afterwards. I finished at 2 hours and 5 minutes on the dot, which I think was 5th-place overall (the results aren't posted yet as of Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.).

I started out at a 6:49-mile, ran in the 6:50s for a while, then dropped to 6:40s, then dropped to 6:30s. I think my fastest mile was 6:27 at around mile 14. I felt relaxed but really started to feel it the final two miles. I ran in a new pair of Nike racing flats I recently bought, and I'm glad I did because now I know not to use them in the actual marathon. My feet were burning those last few miles. My pace went above 7 minutes, but I didn't push too hard at the end.

I didn't feel too bad for the rest of the day on Sunday, but when Monday morning rolled around I was definitely feeling it in my legs. It felt about like it does the day after racing a half-marathon all out. Actually, with the limited training I had the two weeks leading up to the race, I might be a little more sore. And I was just as tight Tuesday morning when I woke up.

I'll take two days off following the race, then jog for a couple of days before resuming normal training. I now have four weeks left until the marathon. My plan is to run 6:30 to 6:45 miles, which should be easier to maintain in four weeks. My key runs from now until then will be a 3-hour long run to build the all-important endurance, hill sprints to increase my strength and 2 x 5K on the track to work on pace. Hopefully I'll be ready.