back to back 20 mile days over the presidents day weekend

Presidents Day weekend began with the Stratford YMCA Sweetheart Run, included a two mile tempo run with Katie after the race, twenty miles on Sunday, and twenty more miles on Monday. They weren’t “true” twenty milers (in the continuous sense) because I briefly broke them up. The two miles (one mile out and back) with Katie was especially rewarding because the 15:10, 7:35 pace was the tangible result of her winter track practices! Previously, she’d run that same out and back in 18 minutes - or more.

On Sunday I ran 14 miles and stopped when Pat and Katie got home from church so we could open Valentine’s Day cards and chocolates. With a sugar high to fuel me, I went back out and ran the remaining 6 miles. This route incorporated the 8 mile course I resurrected a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, a good portion of it was still covered in snow and I had to run in the street, in the face of oncoming traffic. That was seriously unpleasant, but the remaining miles, on the post road, were snow free sidewalks.

I won’t break out all the splits, but here are the main ones:

5 miles 43:12
10 miles 1:26:30
14 miles 1:57:58

8:26 pace

The remaining 6 miles took 48:56, an 8:10 pace.

Overall, Sunday's 20 miles took 2:46:55, an 8:21 pace.

On Monday I ran 16 miles, then I got in the car and drove Katie to the track where she and her teammates boarded the bus to the Armory for their track meet. Then I finished up the remaining four miles when I got home. The first 8 miles were identical (in terms of snow covered sidewalks forcing me to run against traffic on the road). The next six also followed the same post road route, but I the last two were on my neighborhood out and back.

Here are the main splits:

5 miles 43:24
10 miles 1:27:11
15 miles 2:07:24
16 miles 2:14:58

8:26 pace

I decided to run the remaining 4 miles as a tempo run on my hilly neighborhood loop. Here are those splits:

7:48
7:02 14:51
8:15 23:07
7:35 30:44

7:41 pace

Overall, Monday's 20 miles took 2:45:42, an 8:18 pace.

For the combined two days, 40 miles took 5:32:27, an 8:19 pace.