I’ve been remiss this summer blogging about my preparation for the Kansas City Marathon, October 17, perhaps because things seem more routine the second time around. The big change this summer was the addition of speed sessions with The Runners Edge. Those are kicking my butt.

The speed session group includes about 70 people and we meet for twelve Tuesday evenings. Each week we alternate between a hill/road workout and a track workout. I’ve yet to complete an entire speed session, mostly due to the heat. I tend to last from 6:30 – 8:00 or 8:15 PM. To do everything I that I am supposed to do would take at least until 9:00. Looking back at my Garmin logs I see that my heart rate steadily climbs during each successive activity. Once my heart rate gets over 180 BPM, that is about the time the wheels fall off.

Heat and humidity have been a constant problem this summer, even though it has been relatively mild. With my high sweat rate the heat and humidity are my number one running impediment. The last two weekends have been cooler, which has been a real Godsend.

Last week was my first 22-mile training run. My longest training runs for the Oklahoma City Marathon were two 20-mile runs, both of which were a real challenge. I remember barely making it up the final hill of my last 20-mile run and wondering how I could make it six more miles in a marathon.

By contrast, last Saturday’s 22-mile run wasn’t that bad. I ran with our pace group leader who is recovering from an injury so we took it pretty easy. The strategy for all our long runs is to run a mile, and then walk a minute. We managed to keep our running pace between 10:00 and 11:00/mile most of the way. My legs felt rubbery after about 12 miles, as usual, and I felt fatigued, but most importantly I felt like I had more in me when we were done. That was a very nice feeling to have at the end of my longest training run.