Tuesday 18 miles with 4 X 2 miles in <11:00.

The Garmin data is kind of difficult to make out. I changed the auto lap after the first 2 mile interval..
This was 18 miles in 1:51. This was structured as:
6 miles easy. At 6:30 pace my HR never broke 140.
2 miles in 10:37. My HR was riding high so I took off the chest strap and threw it in the bushes.
~1:00 rest.
2 miles in 10:49.
~40" rest.
2 miles is 10:58.
~10" rest.
2 miles in 10:53.
4 mile cool-down that ended up being somewhat quick- the first 2 miles were under 6:00 pace.

I had two goals going in to this.
#1- Don't allow mental weakness. I think I did good on this.
#2- Run these by feel only and check my splits after each interval to learn marathon pace/feel (the HR monitor was for a post workout info). I started out thinking I was cruising at 5:30 pace (the goal pace for the day and for Chicago) and I ended up averaging 5:18 per mile. This is huge for me to see and to realize that this will be suicide on October 11th. My sense of pacing is crap. So on each following interval I dialed it back and still never averaged 5:30 pace. The 3rd interval felt like jogging so I eased up just long enough to take off my shirt and went again. Sub 5:30 pace felt quite relaxed. This was at lower altitude on a flattish cinder trail.

I had planned on looping back to my car and taking nutrition and fluid but I never felt the need. So zero calories or fluid during this- which is a way to see what fuel you are using during a workout. Not by design, but this would be considered a fasting workout- I ate dinner last night at 6pm and ate zero calories until after this workout. If my body was preferring glycogen over fat today (at these intensities) then I would have felt it. No blood sugar lows and drop off in pace. My cool-down was ~6:00 pace for the first 2 miles and it felt good. This isn't something I plan to repeat as I believe practicing race nutrition is critical. Fueling also speeds recovery after the workout.
Future goals will be to extend this session in both volume of goal pace running and over-all volume. So, a loose draft of Friday's session might be 3 X 3 miles in 16:30 with 18-19 miles over-all. I will also add more and more volume to the front end of this workout (moving mileage from the cool-down to the warm-up) in order to deplete my body and mimic the point in the marathon where I fall apart always... miles 13-22. So again a draft for Friday might be 8 miles warm-up then 3 X 3 miles.

And a few random thoughts:
The Nike Lunaracer is hands down the best shoe ever made. It's perfection.

And I'm 100% proud of GZ for his Pikes race. Ya, he melted and fell far short of his goals, but he tried something new and different in his training and went for it on race day. I respect that. Remember the picture of Radcliffe sitting on the curb with her head down? Even world record holders have horrible days. Alan Culpepper melting at the Olympic Trials last year when he was in the best shape of his life? It happens to us all!
GZ finished and showed his kids that quitting isn't an option... good on ya GZ.