Marathon Pace, Long Runs, and Lydiard Lacing

As I eluded to you yesterday, things were a bit crazy at work yesterday so getting in an afternoon run was tough. I was able to carve out about an hour in the afternoon for a run, so I bolted out to the gym and did 7 miles on the treadmill with 5.5 of those miles at marathon pace (6 min/mile). It felt pretty good, especially considering I wasn't really planning on doing any kind of workout or anything, but since I was pressed for time, I kind of had to. That's always been kind of my dilemma now that my marathon pace is getting lower and lower. I guess I've always had it ingrained in my head that marathon pace should feel easy. That you should be able to go out pretty much at any point and do 5 miles at marathon pace and feel fine. While I guess that's true to a certain extent, it certainly isn't to the point where I can just tune out and lock into marathon pace. Does that mean that I'm not there yet, or is it OK for MP to actually feel like an effort? Does the extra mileage that I'm doing make it OK for MP to feel harder, and by the time I sharpen and taper for the actual marathon, what feels tough now will feel easy later? I don't know the answer, but hopefully, as my fitness improves it will start to answer itself.

This morning I did what I call the Halsted Run on the way into work. Basically it's a door to door route starting at my house and ending at the gym by my work. In all it's 23 miles and it's a tough run. You run through some bad neighborhoods and the streets are not made for running. I know it isn't the smartest thing to do in the world, but I pretty much go without water for the entire run. The first water fountain on the whole way is located at about the 20 mile mark. So I usually bring a GU and if I feel like I need it, I will take it at the 20 mile mark and then wash it down with some water and that's it. Overall, the run went good today. My legs felt good and the shoes seem to be working out well.

Earlier this year, I had some strange ankle injury pop up the first time I ran in my Kayano's. After some discussion and investigation, I decided it was caused by having my shoe laces tied to tight on the new shoes. Well, I didn't actually decide that, but it was a theory and one that had some decent supporting evidence. Anyway, there was one particular tendon that was really irritated and it got very swollen and it basically forced me to take almost an entire week off from training in April. Eventually it cleared up and that's when I switched to the Lydiard lacing method for my shoes. Now I don't know if this made a difference or not, but the injury never came back and the shoes seemed to fit more comfortably, so who was I to argue

Which brings us today. About 2 miles into this run, I started to feel that same twinge in my ankle that I felt earlier this year. At first I ignored it, but I could tell it wasn't going away so I stopped, took off my shoes, relaced them as Lydiard instructed and went back at it. It made a difference. The twinge went away and I was able to go on and do the 23 miles. Hmmm, maybe that Lydiard guy knew what he was talking about.

As a side note, I was able to log 409 miles in June. That's the first time I've ever been over 400 miles in a month and about 40 miles more than my May mileage. Of course prior to this year, I've never even logged more than 280 miles in a month, so it's all kind of unchartered territory for me.