Return of the Long Run.

I was apprehensive about today's long steady run, seeing as I have not tackled a long run for about two months due to racing too much. My route was one of my marathon training routes which is twenty two miles of hilly terrain and with it being a nice sunny day surely the heat would take its toll. I completed the route surprisingly quite easy and finished the run with plenty left in the tank. Four minutes slower than my fastest time but seeing as it was only a steady run I'm more than happy with that.
Yesterday I completed my speed interval session over a ten mile route which involves warming up for 1 mile then running 4 minutes fast and 3 minutes steady for 8 miles and finally finishing with a mile steady back home. As I'm in my early building phase of training I didn't give it everything and paid more attention to completing the session and enjoying it so when the time comes for all out speed and pain it will be a case of bring it on rather than the dread of another severe hard session. Mid October is looking good for cranking things up to full power ready for some good racing in November.
The Thirsk 10 mile at the end of November which is also the Northern 10 Mile Championships is my next big target. I will be aiming to get under 51 minutes 30 seconds, so plenty of hard training ahead. It's easier writing the training plan down than doing the training I have found, jotting down hard session after hard session on paper looks good but in reality becomes a disaster as you become a physical wreck. A path I have tried once in search of the secret formula for a training plan that is hard enough to take me to new heights but not so hard it becomes impossible.Then when you find the secret formula that works how do you beat that the following year ? And the year after that ?
I am sure now I will run the Teespride 10k in preparation for the Wetherby 10k which is the week after. I wish I could of been in P.B. performance mode but I will be on that start line at Wetherby and determined as ever to beat the time I did last year. What I lack in speed I think I will make some time back by suffering more this year, the less I suffer now the more I can take in future.
I might of been apprehensive about today's long run but I'm already looking forward to next week's long run. Possibly recce a new route for winter.