I’m kind of at a loss when it comes to explaining to you how this week’s long run went.

It was not the worst long run I’ve ever had.

But it was certainly not the best.

I mean, when it comes down to it, I ran 14 miles, only stopping for my gels and quick little water breaks.

That’s pretty good.

I would not have been able to run an additional 12…but I have another 6 weeks or so to worry about that.

I think the problem is I just never settled into a pace I felt good about.

That’s the thing I should really be playing around with on these long runs, and 14 miles is a good distance to do so.

But I guess I now know what not to do?

I don’t know. Here’s what else I did this week and then I’ll tell you a little more about it:

Monday: 4 miles, 10:48/mi

Tuesday: 30 minute Strength for Runners class from Peloton

Wednesday: 8.88 miles of intervals, 1:35:40 (same intervals workout as two weeks ago, essentially, just in a different order)

Thursday: Strength: 10 minute lower body workout and a 15 minute bike class, both Peloton - legs felt pretty good after these workouts

Friday: 4 miles, 11:25/mi

Saturday: 14 miles, 11:45/mi

I took Wednesday off from work this week because it was the first day of school and the girls had some different dismissals and it was just easier for me to be home rather than cutting a work day short.

Since I was home, I had the time Wednesday morning to run down to the big track and I did my intervals there - those went really well.

And then on Friday Kathy did the morning drop-off so I could run in the morning, which I wanted to do because there was rain forecast for the afternoon…and boy, did it rain. It was crazy.

That said, I have to point out - all things considered I’ve been pretty lucky with the weather this training session. There were some really hot days this summer, but I think it could have been much worse.

So, back to Saturday - I can’t blame the weather. It was beautiful.

I don’t think this had anything to do with it, but I didn’t plan a route for these 14 miles. I figured I’d run south for about 7 miles and the come back.

I always forget that you get to downtown Framingham after just 3.5 miles, though, so I added some zigs and zags on the way down and then did the same coming back and I was pretty impressed with the 14-mile loop I ended up creating, all within Framingham, that you see pictured there at the right.

I just had trouble settling in, I guess. And that happens. I just have to hope that kind of thing doesn’t happen on the day of the marathon.

Total Miles for Week 9: 30.88

Total Miles Overall: 212.38

Context for these numbers: last training - The New York City Marathon training - was the first time I really kept track in real-time of weekly mileage and total overall. I could go back and add up previous training sessions…but it doesn’t really matter a ton to me. If it matters to you, at this point in New York City training I was at 198.65 total miles.