17 mile long run!

Up at the crack of dawn, or 4:45am, whichever came first...out the door by 5:15 to start my long run.  I did an 8.5 mile out and back run for a total of 17 miles.  It was fairly uneventful.  I felt decent most of the time.  I have a new mantra for my long runs: "Go long, finish strong."  I say this to remind myself to hold out just a little bit in the first half of my long runs so that I have enough energy at the end to finish strong.  I've found that my downfall at the marathon is during the last 5-6 miles when I totally fizzle out.  Using this new (Run Less, Run Faster) FIRST method, with only 3 key runs a week, I have to focus on making the last few miles of every long run as strong as I can because that's where the improvement is made.  Today, I was able to maintain a pretty steady pace for the whole run, only taking one walking break at around mile 14.5 when I walked up a hill for about 1/3 of a mile.  When I resumed running at that point, I was tired, no doubt, but able to run the rest of the way and even "sprinted" the last 1/2 mile.  Now that's what I'm talkin' about! ☺

Having had to make up for a missed long run from last week on Monday, I am ending this week of training having run almost 50 miles...that's a lot of pavement pounding, and my feet and legs are definitely feeling it.  Good thing I have the next two days to recover before my next run which will come on Tuesday.