What a difference a day makes

Up until Friday I was feeling less than 100% following the 15 Mile race last Sunday. So it was with some caution I headed out on my Saturday morning long run, the last 20+ mile run before marathon day. I decided to keep a consistent pace as opposed to my fast finish long run of two weeks ago. I followed the same 21.9 mile course covering the hilly part first, as before. As the run was to be even paced I did not start too slow, about 08:15 pace. As I progressed my legs loosened out and I began to feel stronger so I upped the pace a little - sub 08:00 pace. I covered the first 10 miles in about 1:22:05 (08:13 pace) faster than the fast finish run of two weeks ago. I steadily upped the pace towards and below 07:30 minute miles over the last 11.9 miles and while I did not feel as comfortable as I had two weeks ago it was not too stressful and I maintained form and pace to the end, covering the last mile in 07:10, without trying to bust a gut. I initially thought I finished the run in a shorter time, but it turned out to be a minute slower than two weeks ago @ 02:51:45 giving an overall pace of 07:51 (07:48 two weeks ago). Both runs were similar except this time round my initial pace was faster and the fast finish was slower (still close to Marathon pace though). 10 Miles in 01:22:05 (08:13 pace - no HRM) 11.9 Miles in 01:29:40 (07:32 pace) My recovery is over at last. I headed out on a 13.5 mile recovery run this morning. The run went a bit faster than normal in 01:53:59 (08:26 pace @ 126 HR). My legs did feel a bit tired afterwards. As I have to send my Polar running watch to the manufacturers for a new battery (I know, seems strange - but the water resistant seal is not guaranteed if I replace it elsewhere) I borrowed a friend's all singing all dancing running watch for a week or two. This watch told me that my average stride length for the run was 3ft 8in, my cadence (number of strides per minute) was 85 with a max of 88 (Ideally this should be 90 or over), the total ascent was 340ft, the altitude went from -285ft to -160ft (not calibrated as I certainly was not below sea level) and my running index was 82 (don't know what this is). This is all additional to the normal avg/max HR, pace, calories burned etc. When downloaded on a computer I could display the route profile, heart rate, pace (every 15 seconds if I wanted), cadence etc.etc. in graph or spreadsheet format (I could see the HR plot rise with the hills - too much information for me but a great toy nevertheless. The 13.5 mile recovery run got me just over the 70 mile mark for the week (70.8 Miles). The last 70+ mile week I will see in a while. TAPER TIME at last!!! - I still need to get a few speed sessions in though.