18 Miles and Counting

Image found at http://distancedemons.homestead.com/Gear.html

Today was the day....18 long hot miles. I got an early start - heading out the door around 5:30 am (not nearly as early as my very early friend Susan). My husband was going to join me on the bike on the Cross Seminole Trail (see yesterday's post) but he wasn't going to make it up so early. So I offered to go out and run the first 8 miles, then come back and we could go do the other 10 miles. That would give him another hour and a half.

It was still quite dark at 5:30 am - the sun seems to be coming up around 6:15 am or so. I decided to take two walk breaks per mile - one each half mile, for 30 sec - 1 minute. I would use my heart rate as a guide.

The first 8 miles felt great. I was able to keep my heart rate low for the first 5 miles or so, but as I went on, the heart rate drifted higher and by mile 8 I was at an average 157 bpm. A clear sign of a warm humid morning. It was going to be a tough run, but after 8, I felt like I still had 10 more in me.

As I got near to the house after the first 8 miles, my husband met me out on Lockwood on the bicycle. We decided that, rather than get in the car and drive to the other trail, we would just add another 10 miles to what I was doing. I had a 10 mile route I used, so we went that way.

At mile 12-13, things started to get harder. I was hoping for a 12 min mile pace but had fallen behind that by mile 10 - still I knew that I needed to reserve my energy for the distance. The goal was to finish - not with great speed. By mile 14 or so I was walking nearly every quarter mile, and by mile 15 I was using landmarks to push myself (run to that bush down the way then I could walk).

I finished in 3 hours 50 min. I was soaked with sweat (I could wring out my shirt and shorts). Here is a funny thing. In the last 3-4 miles or so, I had to stop 3 times to loosen my shoelaces - my toes were going numb. I think the new Asics are too small - my right 2nd toe has been getting blisters on the end, and the end of my toes are sore after long runs. Time to go back to the running store and check into a different shoe or shoe size. I have just over 100 miles on these so hopefully we can see if this is a good shoe for me. I didn't have these problems in the Addictions, so maybe I need to switch back.

PF heel felt, well, different today. It didn't get painful as in previous runs. It would just feel tight and numb. It is a bit achey but not bad this evening.

Total run stats:

Time: 3:50:12
Avg pace: 12:47 min/mi
AHR: 158 bpm (not too bad - just into the anaerobic zone)
Calories (per Garmin) - 2718 cal
Water consumed during run: 64 oz
Clif shots consumed: 5 (at mile 4, 7, 10, 13 and 15.5)
iPod: Phedip and Michael Mucklow

18 Mile Run Lessons Learned:

Things that went well: Finished the run, had enough water and such, decent time
Things that went poorly: Toes getting numb from tight shoes
Where I was lucky: More clouds than normal this morning gave some relief from the sun
Where I was unlucky: No unluckiness here.

12 weeks until the Marine Corps Marathon!