W9KW#3 - Long run

Missed out on the tempo session on Thursday as I was absolutely up the walls at work at the end of last week - probably should still have went for a run, especially as a form of stress release but didn't get a chance! Was flat out tidying up the house and my room on Saturday, as I'm moving out at the end of the month, so no long run on Saturday - motivation was starting to lull and basically crashed on Sunday, not getting out of bed until late.

So managed to get out Monday for the first run in almost a week - going out the door, I was in two minds between a short jog and trying to do the long run I'd missed at the weekend. I've actually changed to the FIRST's "First Marathon" for the long runs as I was really struggling with their normal plan. This called for a 12 mile run at MP + 20s per mile (~ 10m 35s per mile) instead of 18 miles at MP + 30s.

Felt good after the first few miles (don't know how far as I was playing a mind game with myself - tried to not look at time \ distance until I absolutely HAD to stop) and took a different route than usual, running directly out of Cambridge, which I figured would force me to have to run back (or be out on the road all night). I'd set myself an "ideal" turnaround point which had a few other landmarks where I could quite happily turn-around and aim to better next time on the course - in the end, I made it about 60% towards my ideal point and turned around.

Run after this was a bit of a struggle - I probably ran another 1.5 miles before I stopped for the first time - 7.7 miles in and 1hr 21m's. I was a little disappointed with the distance \ time and the run home from there was a bit of a struggle - plenty of run \ walking. I seem to be really struggling at the moment with the mental toughness of the long run - whether its boredom (I don't feel particularly bored), the lack of a running partner or just plain fatigue I don't know.

One thing that really annoys me is that I can happily run a comparable distance to the 7.7 miles at a quicker pace without too much problem - my last tempo run was 8.25 miles at 9m 42s pace! OK, it was extremely tough and there's no way I could keep that up for another 18 miles but surely I should be feeling a lot better on the slower runs!

Anyways, enough whinging - here's a Sport Tracks screenshot with splits and route.