But very HAPPY with today's run!

Set off about 11:30 and the weather was superb sun shining, no wind but not too hot. I'd messed up over drinks and had no Lucozade fuel powder left and only 2 gels.  I defizzed my Red Bull and added it to some Blue Powerade - it went a very strange colour! The plan was to cover 20+ miles at 8:30 pace, but I had trouble slowing down over the first 5 miles - 8:16, 8:21, 8:06, 8:09, 8:19.  But as you can see a lot of that was down hill.  To 6 miles I steadied at 8:28 and then the climb up to 7 was 8:47 and then I needed to stop at the toilets in Heaton Park but my Garmin didn't seem to auto pause and the next mile was timed at 9:39!

I picked back up to 9 in 8:27 and to 10 in 8:19.  The long climb up over the next 2 miles was 8:22, 8:29 and then to 13 in 8:32.  I went through the half marathon in 1:51 and had the feeling that the miles were coming too quickly and I kept expecting to suffer.  The next three miles were OK in 8:24, 8;22 and 8:35 but I was beginning to feel it.  I'd had one gel at 8 miles and kept drinking the PowerBull mix.  I took the second and final gel at 15.5 miles in the hope that it'd last until the finish.

By 17 I felt like I was running out of energy and dropped to 8:48 and the 9:03 to 18 on a long climb and then came a long down hill that seemed to give me a new lease of life, I reached 20 with miles of 8:24 and 8:22.  I continued to push and got to 21 in 8:11 and finished off the last 0.14 in 1:05 for 21.14 miles in 2:59:25 averaging 8:29 pace.

And yes as the title suggests I feel very tired and extremely achy now but pleased with another good long run!  I've got the sports massage to look forward to tomorrow lunch which I hope will help me recover quicker and also act as preventive medicine to help me avoid injury in the run up to London.

I hope you've all had a great day and I'm off to check and write a few comments.  Happy running!