I'm happy to report that I aced the 6-mile tempo today. Running outside, temps around 76 at the beginning, around 70 by the end (nice and cool), I ran 3 easy + 6 LT + 2 easy. LT splits were 6:09, 6:15, 6:21, 6:18, 6:25, 6:16. This is a 6:17 average for 6 miles! The goal was 6:20, but even this faster pace didn't feel too hard. After mile 4 I started to get some side stitches, so I eased the pace a bit and tried to relax. That was the 6:25 mile. I felt strong again for the last mile, and I'm positive I could have done at least one or two more.

I'm pretty sure this was my best tempo ever. I will look back onto this for years to come, being jealous of my former shape! :)

One more note on the 21-mile long run yesterday. Since I had some troubles with some of the longer runs lately (see failed 14-miler and 18-miler with marathon paced portion), I decided to take particular care of hydration. I took 5 bottles of Gatorade with me, 4 of them are 8 oz (but I overfill them to 9), and the last one is a bit larger, probably about 10 oz. I knew I would have access to a water fountain at mile 7.5 and then again at 14.5.

I had to drink the 10 oz bottle first, because it refused to stay in my belt. For the same reason, I didn't want to refill that one. I haven't finished a single 8 oz bottle by the time I ran by fountain for the first time, but by the second time, I had two empty 8 oz bottles, and I refilled both with water. By the time I got home, I was completely out of fluid. I followed no hydration plan; I just drank to thirst, and I allowed my cravings to dictate when to take water and when to take Gatorade. I downed the last sip of fluid 2.5 miles from home.

The summary is that I drank ~46 oz = 1.36 L of Gatorade, and 18 oz = 0.53 L of water. And it wasn't even that hot. That suggests that I may need a liter of fluid per 10 miles on some of my long runs. That is quite a bit more than I brought with me on my failed runs. I tried to complete my 14-miler on 0.8 L water, and I think for the 18-miler I had 1.36 L of water. Either the amount, or the sugar or salt, or multiple factors of these was insufficient.

It's a bit embarrassing that I still need to learn the need for proper hydration after over 6 years as a runner, but it is just so counterintuitive that I can run 13-14 miles on no fluid in the winter, and I need a water tower for the same distance in the summer.

I finished this monster of a week (68 miles) with a 21-mile long run. Pace was fine, and I felt OK. Note that this has been my second longest run ever; for my first marathon cycle I only completed 20-mile long runs (and one out of the two ended with a death march). I also ran those at 9 min/mile, and the marathon was just a bit faster than that. This time I managed 7:47/mile (or 7:45 if we count moving time only). So all is fine.

I'm starting some doubles next week. Then toward the end of the week, a 6-mile tempo on Thursday, and a 20-mile long run on Saturday. The real scary one is in two weeks: 16 miles with 12 at marathon pace...

The cutback week was more of a cutback than intended. Saturday was supposed to be a 15-mile run, but I had my firefighter test out on that morning from 9 am to 2 pm. It was so exhausting that I decided to skip the run altogether. So I finished the week with 40 miles.

Some redemption of all the setbacks happened today. On a 10-mile run, I executed a 5-mile LT portion with mile splits 6:14, 6:19, 6:27, 6:27, 6:13, a 6:20 average. Spot on. But this time, it was not treadmill: it was road, 81 F with some sunny portions, traffic, and some small amount of elevation change. It does seem like I have the fitness, I just lack the endurance.

Last week was a disaster. After my first long run fiasco on Tuesday, I had a much worse. It was the Saturday long run. It was supposed to be 8 miles easy + 10 miles at marathon pace. Intimidating, yes. But I was OK after the 8 miles, and I set out at the normal 6:40-6:50 pace. After not quite 3 miles at that pace, I got very bad side stitches, and the run was effectively over. A 7-mile death march. I tried to speed up maybe once or twice after that, but it was hopeless. I had to stop or slow to a walk many times in the last 3 miles and my side stitches only changed between "quite painful" and "extremely painful".

I haven't experienced anything like this for years. Dehydration? I did lose 4-5 pounds, which is 3-4% of my body weight, but that's not extreme, I'm sure it happened to me before. I did not feel thirsty when the pain came. (Gebrselassie lost 9.8% of his body weight during his marathon World record). It wasn't even that hot (80-85F). On top of everything, I felt just fine minutes (or actually seconds) before I blew up.

Both Pfitzinger and Daniels say that marathon paced runs are mostly of psychological benefit: practising your marathon pace and increasing your confidence. It doesn't seem to work for me...

No chance for redemption this week. It is a recovery week with no real workouts or even long runs. Longest is 15 miles.

A bad day followed a good day on Tuesday. I got dehydrated on my 14-miler and I gave up after 13. I was so done, I had to walk home, even though I was only 0.1 mile from home. I couldn't go another step. This is despite having 3 bottles of water with me that I drank in regular intervals. It was just too hot, I guess.

Today was the first time that I ran a continuous tempo run (as opposed to intervals) since (I think) last fall. Though this was actually treadmill. Still, managed 6:18 pace for 5 miles. The most incredible thing was that it felt fairly easy! Never in the pain cave, and what's more, stayed with a 2-2 breathing pattern all the way.

These are good quality treadmills, so hopefully they are correctly calibrated. I couldn't do this workout outside, because it was over 90 degrees, and at this time of the year in this part of the country it's very hot until very late (it is still 82 F as of this writing).

If this is correct, this must be the best tempo I've ever run by far. The fastest 5-mile tempo I've found in my blog is 2013 Spring, and it was at 6:25/mile. Last fall (outside, in warm weather) I ran tempos at 6:30/mile on a good day, and I still managed a sub-1:25 hilly half marathon.

I'm ambivalent about running the Urban Bourbon Half Marathon all out two weeks before my marathon. My team counts on me, even if I just run a slow-7 fast-10K combination (say, in 1:35), as per my training plan. But it feels wrong not to give 100%.

I finished the fourth week of training with only one missed 5-mile recovery run: I got a stomach virus that made that day a misery, and even on the following day's 11-miler I had a few issues (stomach cramps). The highlight of the week was the 18-mile long run today at 7:47. I got mildly dehydrated and quite exhausted. I thought I was done at mile 15, but managed to rally and put in a strong last mile (7:13). I'm happy I have a rest day tomorrow.