Today’s 14 mile run was the first long run longer than a half marathon…of the rebooted training plan that is.
I approached the run with a lot more confidence than the past couple long runs based on the confidence-building run I had on Thursday. It’s hard to judge how big the placebo effect was but I think it was fairly large.
Perhaps this “high” I was riding contributed to the biggest “blonde” moment I’ve had on a run yet. Just before mile 2 my left shoelace came untied so I paused my garmin when I stopped to tie it. Mile 2 also happened to be my first walk/refuel break. I started the garmin again, walked, ate my Gu and started up again. I needed to use the bathroom and planned to stop at Williams Hardware. Just before I arrived I started to wonder why my Garmin hadn’t beeped to alert mile 3. Yup, when I started running again I’d stopped the Garmin. I’ve done that before but not for a full mile. That’s the problem with wearing the Garmin but not looking at it. Thankfully I was able to recover. 
During my first out and back, 8 miles, I felt strong. For some reason when I crossed over Duncan Chapel Road to start my second out and back, I started to feel tired, like I’d almost reached my limit. I knew I could push another 6 miles but at that point I didn’t want to.
I had a feeling that might happen so I told myself that I couldn’t go buy Hunger Games after my run unless I completed all 14 miles.
Spolier alert: I got it and I’m watching it right now. 
That last out and back was tough but I got it done. I’m very thankful that this training plan ended up being a comeback rather than an attack. I’ve learned to be a lot less concerned with my speed and instead focus on how I feel during the run.
Perfect post long run reward:
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Pingback: Savannah Rock n Roll Marathon Training | Stepping Out