A little longer run

Normally I would be all self-congratulatory after finishing 12.6 miles in 5*F to 15*F wind chill. It was difficult to finish over two laps around our usual running route from the YMCA. My face was too frozen to talk without slurring my words!

But - my training buddy Dave started at 6AM before the sun came up and had finished about 18 chilly miles before I even showed up! So that kept me jogging along until he finished his 30 mile ultramarathon for the day. Congratulations to Dave the Ultramarathoner!

Yeah, that heart rate is looking good!! NOT! I'm not sure why the heart rate meter wasn't working, but that's about 80 beats low for me.

Not a bad workout pace for me today, either. Not quite up to my all-time best half marathon race pace (10:38 min/mile), but not too far off, especially considering I took a few walk breaks that I wouldn't have taken in a race!

Running the numbers

These are just my notes to myself about my long run today, just so I can keep track of what seems to be working. Everything went reasonably well today - it was long, I took breaks at the car every 2.4 miles (not counted in the pace), but mainly because the temperatures stayed below 80*F I didn't quit early and I got the job done that I needed to do. NO digestive problems for a very nice change! I'm 8 weeks out now from Marine Corps Marathon - I'll do 3 to 5 more long runs of this distance on up to about 20-22 miles. I hope I can do at least a couple of them faster than this one!

Total distance: 17.28 miles
Moving pace: 12:05 min/mile
Total time including stops: ~4:15
2 Imodium plus 2 ibuprofen 1 hour pre-start
2 Excedrin @ mile 11
12 Endurolytes (1.2 g sodium) (1 per 1.4 miles/1 per 11 ounces water)
17 Clif Bloks (1 per mile)
140 ounces water (8 oz/mile)
Body weight down 1.2 pounds (very mild dehydration, not bad at all)

Swan Villas loop: 1) 30:00, 2) 31:06
Chance Hope loop: 1) 30:05, 2) 28:43, 3) 28:41
Golf course loop: 1) 29:16, 2) 28:52

PS: Yes, I'm aware that I shouldn't take ibuprofen or Excedrin for long runs. No lectures about it unless you're at least 50 years old, have arthritic knees, and have had at least two surgeries on your feet, okay!?
PPS: How 'bout them negative splits!??

PPPS: If I could do this pace for the full 26.2 miles (without breaks!) that would give me a 5:17 marathon. Which would be a huge PR. BUT - I still think I might be able to go faster than that, if the weather is good and I keep my focus in that difficult final 10K. We'll see. . . .

Long run done

Whew. Finally got in a longish (14.6 mile) LSD run today, emphasis on the Slow in Long Slow Distance. Fortunately the weather was considerably cooler than it has been!

I used the same strategy as one week ago: Drove my car out to a nearby residential area and did a total of 6 trips around 3 different loops from my car, stopping and rehydrating and refueling between each loop.

Here are my numbers (Garmin was acting flaky and had no charge, didn't use it):
Temps: 65*F-75*F
Humidity: 58% plus
Swan Villas loop (2.52 miles): 1) 32:19 2) 32:45
Golf Course loop (2.33 miles): 1) 29:41
Chance Hope loop (2.43 miles): 1) 30:12 2) 30:24 3) 35:27 (lots of walking but got 'er done)
Water consumed: ~100 fluid ounces
Sodium consumed: ~1000 mg (in 10 Endurolytes capsules)
Clif Blox consumed: 11 (total 363 calories)
Stomach discomfort: 0
Trips to the bushes: 4 (ugh)
Overall pace on the road: ~13.0 min/mile (much slower than I want)

Still many miles to go. . . .

Ten miler

It's 11 weeks to Marine Corps Marathon, I'm supposed to be doing 14-16 mile long runs about now, but this is all I had time for while the babysitter was here this weekend (while my husband is out of town).

I drove a couple miles to a nice residential area nearby and parked in the shade (in the center of the map below) and left my water and Gu and Clif Blox and salt in the car and went out for 4 loops on 3 different routes, stopping for refueling every ~2.5 miles. It was on the warm side, only 86*F but full sun and no wind at all.

I've set 12:00 min/mile as my cutoff between "jogging" and "running" (which is completely arbitrary, but anyway), so here's the breakdown for today:

At least the heart rate (and pace) looked a lot more consistent than this mess from a week ago. Oh, and I had no major knee problems, at least - it's been cranky but apparently babying it along with a knee wrap and taking lots of days off from running is keeping it more or less happy.

I'm starting to become doubtful that I can still pull off a sub-5 marathon in 11 weeks, but maybe I can get close. To go under 5 hours I'll need to run it more than 20 seconds per mile faster than my moving pace today, only over 26.2 miles instead of 10 and including water stops and hills and everything. Hmm. I'm just hoping for that autumn speed boost when it gets cooler, or it's going to be a really LONG day out there!! (Not to mention for the Annapolis and Disney triathlons before that). I need to get in a fast 14-16 miler next weekend or I'm going to be getting worried.

One longer run done

The first of my long runs working towards my fall marathon is done. A couple weeks late, but it's done. 11 miles, which was all the distance I could manage while the girls were in their 3 hours of camp and still have enough time to mop myself off and catch my breath before I picked them up. Pace was a modest 12:45 min/mile, including some walks for water and Clif Blox and salt. I did two loops of most of the 10K route from Easton Y, minus a little part at the beginning. There's a lot of nice roads out there to explore - I'm glad to have my Garmin which will allow me to explore some of the other side roads on a long run next week and still know my distance and pace.

I was glad not to feel any lingering after-effects of the hot and nasty 7.5 miles I ran in the duathlon on Sunday. Speed and pounding definitely weren't my problems that day. But you can see from the map that yes, we have a little humidity around here.

An easy run

This was today's easy run around the neighborhood. You can see where I picked up the pace a bit just to keep my 5K time under a 12 minute per mile pace (37:01), and then slacked off again.

I just want to get this chart into the record books (aka this blog) so that I can remember what an easy pace heart rate looks like for me. Because this (140-150 bpm heart rate) is at least what I need to be doing for my LSD runs later this summer when I'm training for Marine Corps Marathon.

NOT slower.

Although when it's 200 degrees outside and 200% humidity, my heart rate may say otherwise.