I'm not a big fan of long, slow runs. The entire time I am supposed to be running at a slow pace, I think "I can run faster than this. What's the matter with me?" And then I speed up and the long run is no longer so slow. But this, evidently, is what gets me into training trouble. I get burned out and then I'm not able to complete the long runs I need to in order to train properly for this marathon. I joined a running club this winter, Runner's Edge of the Rockies. I learned that I should be running all of my long runs at one minute per mile slower than I will be running the marathon. That means I should stay at around 9:30 pace. I've been trying really hard to stick to this plan and not make my runs faster than they should be. Perhaps running the long runs faster than 9:30 pace is a sign that I'm getting better and the training is working?
On Friday, Feb. 8th I ran 5.5 miles around Crown Hill Park. This is a beautiful open space park with an outer loop of 2 miles, and an inner loop around a lake of 1.2 miles. And the entrance to the park is exactly 1 mile from my house. Scout is always an excellent dog in the park, and gets tons of praise from other people as we pass by just because she is heeling nicely. I think they are all just jealous because their dogs pull them all over. Frankly, I can't take any credit for how good Scout is. She came to us last year already trained. We adopted her from the Colorado Prison Trained Canine Companion program http://www.coloradoci.com/ . While in "prison", she learned all of her basic commands (sit, down, come, heel, wait). So my only job was to stay consistent with her training. Makes it easy for me! That day we stayed consistent over all of the miles and ran an even 9:30 pace. Right on target!
Sunday was our longest run yet...12 miles. We started this run at the Golden Spike at I-76 and 54th Ave. in Arvada. We followed the Ralston Creek through Arvad
a to 72nd and Ward, then turned around and ran back. It was a beautiful day, in the mid 50's and sunny. Lots of people were out with their kids and dogs on the trail. Seeing so many people made the time go by quickly. Scout again was on her best behavior, running right beside me the entire time. Pace? Now this is when I get myself into trouble. Average pace was 9:07 for the 12 miles. Mile over mile was fairly consistent ranging from 8:56 to 9:19. The variance comes from slowing down to get around people hogging up the trail or going around huge puddles of water from the melted snow. You can see by the elevation (indicated in green) that the first 6 miles were slightly uphill. My slowest mile was actually mile 6 at 9:19 and the fastest mile was mile 8 at 8:56. I was tired at the end, but not so much that I couldn't keep running if I had to. Hopefully this is a good sign. And another good thing...no knee pain!
a to 72nd and Ward, then turned around and ran back. It was a beautiful day, in the mid 50's and sunny. Lots of people were out with their kids and dogs on the trail. Seeing so many people made the time go by quickly. Scout again was on her best behavior, running right beside me the entire time. Pace? Now this is when I get myself into trouble. Average pace was 9:07 for the 12 miles. Mile over mile was fairly consistent ranging from 8:56 to 9:19. The variance comes from slowing down to get around people hogging up the trail or going around huge puddles of water from the melted snow. You can see by the elevation (indicated in green) that the first 6 miles were slightly uphill. My slowest mile was actually mile 6 at 9:19 and the fastest mile was mile 8 at 8:56. I was tired at the end, but not so much that I couldn't keep running if I had to. Hopefully this is a good sign. And another good thing...no knee pain! 
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