Two long runs in one week

This is the first time I've done two long runs in the same week. I did 20 miles on Tuesday to catch up with what I should have done on the previous Saturday, then turned around and did this weekend's 20-mile run this morning. Instead of waiting until Saturday I decided to take advantage of the weekday and go to Smithville Lake to run the trail. On weekdays there's hardly anyone out there on the trails, but on weekends there are walkers, bikers, runners, dogs, kids and so on.

I had my doubts about this run because I knew I wasn't quite recovered from Tuesday's 20, although I was close. Once I got going I thought I could be satisfied with 15 miles, but once I got about 5 miles out I started to change my mind. My legs were a little sore, but they weren't getting any worse as long as I didn't push the pace, and maybe they were even getting a little better.

Besides that, I was wearing a new pair of inserts in my shoes that felt quite different than my old pair, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to wear them for the whole run. I got them from my foot doctor for $15 less than what I was paying for roughly comparable inserts from the running store. As it turned out, they caused me no problems - including no new hot spots, which I'd been experiencing with my old pair.

I averaged just 10:28 per mile for the whole run, which is pretty slow, but I think it was the pace that made it all work. I just knew that if I ever pushed the pace, my legs wouldn't hold up and I'd have to struggle, so I avoided it. The temp was great, too, starting out in the low 50s and never quite reaching 60 at the end. I actually ran 20.2 miles, and the overall time was 3:31:27.