The Long Run Hump

So, things are moving and shaking in my running world right now. I'm still riding high from my Half Marathon a little over a week ago and I'm now on week two of keeping my diet in check and losing weight. 'Bout time I got my shit together.

 

The one piece that is taking a little bit more time to get together is my long run. UGGGGHHH, I just cant break into the decent run over 14 miles. This past weekend I tried to run 16. My plan was to start slow (10:00 or 10:15 for the first 8 and then start to whittle my way down for the remaining 8). Great plan, right? My thoughts are that I'm running out of gas in my long runs because I'm starting out wayyyyyy too fast. So... just scale back a bit in the beginning and I'll at least put myself in the position of  hopefully having some energy in the home stretch. Right?

Except, holy fuck that's REALLY hard to do. Particularly on group long runs. It's like the energy from the group propels me into running faster than I need to.

Which means by mile 12, this happens.

Honestly, I don't have a LOT of time before OKC Marathon. I've got approximately 5 weekends to string together at the very least 2 runs of over 18 miles. (And really, it's more like 4, because I most likely won't do that the weekend BEFORE the race). But, there's still time. I'm also hoping to increase some of my weekly runs of 6 miles to 7 or 8 miles. I think that could help with my endurance long-term.

I'm not complaining though. I'm really loving running again and enjoying the process. It's taken SO LONG to get back to this place, that I'm not going to let pesky long runs keep me down.