Canning Reserve to Rifle Range Road - Week 11 – Session 4 – 25.6 km Long Run

Here is what Hal said about the muscle soreness I was experiencing earlier in the week:

15 miles is a good chunk of distance, although admittedly you will be asked in another couple of months to go further still. This is what I would call the normal stress of training pretty hard. But training pretty hard is necessary if you want to finish 26.

I'm not sure there are any magic pills. It seems that you are doing much more than the average runner for recovery. And it appears that since you are taking regular walking breaks, you have not fallen into the trap of doing the long runs too fast.

If you need to slow down somewhat on any of your runs, do it. But I would say that you are right on course, and while every run from here to Week 18 will not be easy, neither will be the marathon, which gets us back to that rose garden comment.

Wise words. As it turned out, I recovered well after the final four miler before this weekend’s 16miler. Not sure if the run on the treadmill had anything to do with it, or whether it was rubbing Arnica into my legs after the run that did the trick. I'm pleased to report that the 16miler went really well and I rolled up to the start of my run feeling refreshed. This time I was more mentally prepared for the tiredness in the legs and when it came I felt relaxed about it.

I finished feeling I could have go on, so I'm feeling much more upbeat about the training and the upcoming 18 and 20 milers. You could say that this week I embraced the toughness of the training and was all the better for it.Being greeted by my wife and son after the run made it all the sweeter. I now have the perfect mental image for the finish of the marathon.

Route:  Maribynong River
Actual Distance – 25.70 km
Time – 2:53:02
Pace - 6:42
HR/&/Zone:  145/75%/2.8
RPE: 5
Temp: 6C
Total for week: 51 km
Cumulative Total: 383 km