You never know what you are going to get.
After having a rough week of training - beginning last Sunday with an incredibly hard 8 miler and ending this week with a tough, tired feeling 3 miler and 4 miler, I was not optimistic about today's long run. I wanted to do 10 but was going to settle for 9 miles since last week was so hard. I decided to take a route that would allow me to bail early if I couldn't make 9 or 10.
I had a carb loaded dinner last night - not really on purpose. We happened to go to an Italian restaurant and I chose the chicken with Angel Hair pasta. I only ate as much pasta as it took to finish the chicken. Still it felt like a brick in my stomach later...and I wondered if I had made a bad mistake for my long run.
I also went to bed later than planned...after 11 pm. And woke up on and off. So when the alarm went off at 5:15 am, I was surprised to find myself awake. I decided to just take it slow, walking 1 min for every 5 min of running. If I was feeling up to it, I would go to 1 min walks after each mile for the second half of the run.
After the first couple of miles I found my heart rate was staying under 150 bpm, so I was very encouraged. It looked like a good run day! I keep it conservative, with my walking breaks every 5 min, until I was halfway through the run. Then I walked at the mile mark. for the last 2 miles I picked up the pace a bit, particularly on the last mile. I wanted to work toward a marathon pace at the end. It all felt good.
My splits:
Mile 1: 12:57
Mile 2: 13:07
Mile 3: 13:00
Mile 4: 12:59
Mile 5: 13:04
Mile 6: 13:12 a little slower
Mile 7: 13:16 still a little slower
Mile 8: 13:09
Mile 9: 12:47 Picking up the pace
Mile 10: 12:08 Fastest mile
AHR = 154 bpm (outstanding!)
MHR = 174 bpm (hit this in the last .12 miles)
I wish I could be faster, but given where I have been lately, this is really good! I am very encouraged :-).
On to week 3 of my training for San Antonio!!
6 comments:
Great to hear this weekend's run went better! I really think last week was tough because you had not been here and were not used to the heat & humidity.
And, oh, those chocolates look YUMMY!
Lady, with this heat I think your splits look AWESOME! :)
San Antionio -- how exciting!
You're making progress! I'm pround of you for getting outside and getting it done! I think in the last month I have only run outside one time.
I think your doing a great job, with the walking running. The heat can be brutal. (finally here it's nice after a few hot hot weeks of humidty and heat) You know when it's a great run when you aren't sore and as long as you feel good after and there aren't any injuries, that's all that matters. By the way... a Box of chocolates, shirley is right yummm yummmmmm that's something to treat yourself too after a run like that :D
The heat and humidity must be killer for you ladies in Florida right now. I don't know how you do it. Hang in there Chris! You always deliver.
Just found your podcast and your blog and I'm excited to find a runner who is so much like me!
I did the Goofy Challenge in January and you two are going to do great. I had the best time stopping for pictures and just enjoying both days and not trying to push myself too much because of the double races. In the end it was probably my most enjoyable marathon ever, even though it was BY FAR the slowest.
I'm running Marine Corps this fall (I found you by your MCM race podcast) and I'm hoping to finally crack 5 hours although my training hasn't been so great so far.
I've started training with a HRM and it drives me crazy. I'm always worrying about it and I find it hard to concentrate just on running. I know it's the key to everything though, so I'm trying to adapt to it.
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