Week 6 of Marathon Training

So this past week was a big one for me in training for the NYC marathon for two reasons. One is that I was away from home and I've just never really been good at working out when I'm on vacation. Two is that I had an 8 miler on the schedule and I was afraid because that was the longest I'd gone in the past before my injury got too much for me to handle and I had to stop running.

I'm very happy to report that I kept up with my training 100% and even my cross training while I was away and that I was able to do my 8 mile run completely PAIN FREE! It was honestly amazing. I felt incredible the entire time I was running. I ran the entire thing on a trail in Indy that is just perfect for running, easy on the body and interesting enough that you don't get bored. It was a little extra interesting on this particular day because there was a huge rain storm that morning and I had to do my best to dodge puddles the entire time which just kept things interesting. It was by far the best long run I've ever had.

Here are the stats from the 8 miles:

8 miles

1:38:18 total time

12:23 min/mile

151 avg HR

847 calories burned

On this run I just basically listened to my body and took it easy. I probably could have gone a bit faster, but from everything I've read I need to focus on taking my long runs as slow as I can to keep from getting injured. So that's what I did and it felt great. I know that every long won't feel this great, but that's ok, because I know that I have great runs in me...