Back into the 20s

After I'd finished my marathon the recovery period lasted at least one month. Since the beginning of November I've been slowly working my mileage back up, but my long runs have been rather slow in coming. This was partly due to working on my turnover, which improved my training paces quite a bit. I'd also started to do more interval and tempo type runs, mostly on the treadmill, so my legs have been feeling the effects, as they say.

I had decided that my goal was to get back to running twenty kilometres for a long run before the year was out, and today, on the last possible Sunday of 2010, I finally managed it! Mother nature didn't make it pleasant, however, as I was met with -12C (-21C with the wind chill) weather in the Nation's Capital for my attempt. I had not prepared myself for this type of cold and, consequently, had not brought the right type of clothing. Be that as it may I was not about to let the chilly wind stop me from running and off I went after sleeping in until almost 9am.

The run was not particularly tough physically, but mentally it was rather difficult to keep a positive outlook as the distance slipped by at a snail's pace. My actual running pace was decent (5:09/km overall, 8:18/mile), but it sure felt longer than the 1:43:09 that it took to complete my 20km long run.

But it's done and I am satisfied that I have made it back into the 20s before the New Year.