Journey to Kona Day 187: Twenty Miles

Twenty miles is my magic running number.  In 2016, I ran twenty miles every week for twenty weeks.  I also had some of my best ironman run performances that year.  As I approach Kona nine weeks from now, this concept has resonated for me.  A few weeks before Ironman Boulder, I did an 18 1/2 mile run. While it wasn't twenty miles, it had a ton of climbing, and took me just about 3 hours, which is sort of the magic number for my twenty mile runs.  Obviously, I ran a marathon at Ironman Boulder, which I suppose counts as a twenty mile run.  Looking back at my training logs, in May I did a 2:38 run (15 miles) and a 3:05 run (17 miles).  These runs did have a lot of climbing, making the time on my feet the important factor.  I suppose that I began my year with a 100 mile "event," which took me 40 hours to complete, with about 30 hours of moving time.  There's no question that had an impact on me this year.  Since the end of March, I've also completed five other 2 hour runs.  These all add up, but they're not "twenty milers."  Today was my first official twenty mile training run.  There will be more!

I used the opportunity of a local half marathon to simplify today's twenty miler, and to give me some incentives.  I got to the race early, and managed to get in 7.2 miles prior to the start of the half marathon.  My legs were still a little tired from the week, but not bad, and I just kept a very comfortable pace.  The race itself was another story.  A fellow triclub member told me that she planned to run 9:30 pace, and I figured, that might be a little slow, but maybe I'd run with her.  Our first mile was 8:20, and that set the tone for me.  I was breathing fine and felt comfortable, so I just settled into a reasonable pace over the first eight miles, generally running in the 8:30-9:00 range.  My breathing was fine, and my legs felt fine.  Mile 9 was another story.  I had begun to pick up my effort, but my legs wouldn't answer.  9:20 was my time for mile 9.  I lifted my effort further, but the legs wouldn't respond.  I engaged my best grunting technique and increased my breathing to every 3rd step.  I was locked in around 9:30 pace.  That's what I did over the last four miles.  In some ways, I shouldn't be too surprised.  That's probably similar to what I did at the Santa Rosa 70.3.

On a very positive note, I was running as hard as I could at the end of a three hour, 20.25 mile run.  My pace wouldn't go much faster than 9:30 (although I did manage to get into the 8 minute range coming to the finishing chute).  Considering that I've never run an ironman marathon at faster than 10 minute pace, I should be pretty happy.  I also noted that my cadence was right around 168 steps/minute.  I've been working on this. I'd like it to be a little faster, but I held pretty steady today, rather than slowing down my cadence at the end, which I've done in the past.  Obviously, in Kona, I'd be thrilled to be running anything close to 10 minute miles at the end.  Trying to lock in the feeling and sensation of running 9:30 pace on tired legs is what ironman training is all about.  It's what my twenty milers are all about.

When I hit my 20th mile today, it had taken me about 3 hours, 2 minutes and 45 seconds.  During my "20 x 20" experience, the fastest that I ran twenty miles was right around 2 hours and 51 minutes.  I did several of those 20 milers in 2:54-2:58.  I'll definitely take 3:02 today.  It also came with an age group win and 34th place overall.  Nine weeks until Kona.  This is definitely a good start to my running preparation!