13.5 miles in 1:48:30 at 1% incline – last double digit mile run for 2013 and Goofy Challenge training

Good solid run this morning for my last double digit training run heading into the Goofy Challenge in January!  Felt strong, steady and healthy.  Feeling good and confident with about a week and a half to go until we head to Disney World.  Looking at the time – in 2 weeks from right now I should actually be finished the full marathon portion and maybe back at the hotel resting.

I started off a little slow this morning and had trouble finding my stride but after a quick bio-break about a mile in I felt a lot better and was able to move a bit harder and stretch out my legs and hips.  After that I got into a rhythm of 7.5 and 8 mph stretches with a 1 minute walk break after 9 minutes of running.  I did skip a few walk breaks though near 20, 50 and 80 minute marks when I wanted to make sure I hit some arbitrary distance at the 30, 60 and 90 minute points.  Felt good after the initial issue in the first mile and finished feeling like I could go further.

This marks the last double digit run of 2013 and of the 2014 Goofy Challenge training period for me.  I have a scheduled 4 mile run on New Year’s Eve as the last run of 2013 but might do an unscheduled 3.85 miles tomorrow to make sure I hit the 1400 mile mark for the year.

For the Goofy Challenge I still have a total of 34.5 miles of running to go with a 9 being the longest.  Granted if I add the unscheduled 3.85 tomorrow that goes up to 38.35 but over a week and a half that seems pretty light considering I did 30 miles in 2 days last weekend.  But even though the mileage is a bit lighter intensity can’t let up – I need to keep pushing hard on the speed to make sure I stay at as high a level as I can even while letting my body start to rest and recover a bit heading into the event.

I would say based on current weather forecasts as well all my remaining training runs will be done inside on the treadmill – the cold is just not letting up and with the additional inches of snow yesterday some of the trails I run on will have gotten a bit limb snappy.  So treadmill it is for another week and a half.