Enter the 20-Miler

My plan for Sunday's long run seemed like a lot of fun, in theory. The easiest way to log the long miles around here is to trudge up the Towpath Trail and back for whatever mileage, but I get bored with the same flat terrain. To spice things up, I decided to take a slight detour on the Buckeye Trail for my first of three 20-milers of this training cycle.

My pace was in the mid- to high-9:00s for the first six miles, as I ran from Szalay's farm to just past the Boston Store on the Towpath. From the Boston Store, I broke off the Towpath to the Buckeye Trail to Pine Lane, about eight miles out and back, through single-track trails and steep hills. Then I returned to the saving graces of the flat Towpath back to my starting point.

After the Buckeye Trail portion of my run, my pace dropped off considerably. And by that time, the temperature had reached the 80s. I struggled on those final six miles as my water supply ran scarce, but my training week ended well.

Akron Marathon Training Week 10:

• Monday's barefoot five-mile recovery run quickly flushed out Week 9 (9:42 pace).
• Thursday's breathless 7.5-miler was supposed to be Wednesday's nine-miler (10:41 pace).
• Friday's barefoot, easy but still-out-of-breath four-miler was supposed to happen Thursday (10:05 pace).
• Saturday made me feel better with a 10.7-mile run through West Akron (9:22 pace).
• Sunday was my first 20-miler (20.5, actually) of the year (11:11 pace).

My weekly total was 48 miles, yet another new high. This week is a rest week, thankfully. I have yet to run with any kind of fuel -- just water. I'm hoping these excursions into glycogen depletion will help me on race day. Three weeks until the Buckeye Half Marathon.