Notes:
I begin to have hope again, 3:30 dose not seam impossible to me today, next week however this may change again. This was the best long run I have had in months.
I have to give most of the credit to my Garmin Forerunner 205. And the very cleaver and useful "Virtual Partner". This works by displaying two little runners, one is you and one is your "partner", your partner runs at what ever pace you set for your goal. In my case I set it to do 20 miles @ 9:06. For the for the first mile I was about 100 feet behind. But around mile 2 I caught up. The rest of the run I varied a bit, from being 150 feet to 400 feet ahead of my partner. The beauty of this is that It really helped me control my pace. Normally I cant truly check my pace for until I reach each mile marker. This is not to helpful because what I end up doing is dropping behind, then over running to catch up. With the virtual partner, I just have to make sure I stay a few hundred feet ahead, and I can relax, if I drop I speed up just a tad, or if I get far ahead I let myself relax a bit until I'm back to 200 or so feet ahead.
I finished the run about a minute early, and did not have any new muscle pain. I was sour after, however no more then I would expect from a 20 mile run, in the rain and 27 degree wind chill. But my 18 mile run last week was about a million time more painful then this. I may have had a breakthrough, but I wont count on it yet. I don't do 20 miles again for 3 weeks. But I am no looking forward to it again, and that make me a very happy, and very optimistic guy.
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