20 Miles - Divine!!!

My last long week before my Bear Mountain 50 miler on April 12 featured a 12 mile run on the roads of Staten Island, an 8 mile trail run on tough trails in the Staten Island Greenbelt, and, to end this great week, a 20 miler on the path around Manasquan Reservoir on Saturday (March 22).

Manasquan Reservoir was the ideal site for this run because:

1) Each lap of Manasquan Reservoir was 5.1 miles long. Hence, 4 laps in total.
2) At the end of each lap, I have the chance to use my car as an aid station to replenish energy and liquids for the coming laps.
3) The path was gentle enough for a long run at the end of a gigantic week of running.

So how did it go? Total time for the run was 2 hours 46 minutes and change. About an 8:24 pace. I was figuring on a 9 minute pace to sustain me. So this was WAY ahead of expectations for me, and was tremendously pleased with the run.

Regarding the run, my first 3 laps were tremendously easy at this pace. The last lap was a tad more sluggish, but I kept the pace up until the end. Well, I did 5 miles today, the day after the run, and felt fine!

So the bottom line for this run is positive, but cautous. The sluggishness on the 4th lap reminds me that I should NOT start the Bear Mountain race at this pace. My initial strategy for this race is to start about 10 minutes per mile pace on level ground, and walk up the initial mountain climbs at even slower that pace. I intend to make this race feel easy for the first 20 miles so that I have the energy to sustain it to the end.

What will be the schedule for next week? Lots of trails, ending with 13 miles in Bear Mountain this Sunday (March 30). I'll post the highlights soon.