A New Milestone

• Posted: July 19, 2008
• |
• Author: Shéamus
• |
• Filed under: Workouts
• |
• Tags: No tags set for this entry.

Actually, a couple of new milestones. Today was the first day I ran for more than an hour, and I also set a new PB in the 10K (51:02).

One problem I face over these longer runs is pacing. When I try to actually run slower than normal - and I knew I needed to average 8:30/mile or better today to meet my goal of running 7 miles or more in an hour - my body feels all heavy and sluggish. It’s hard to run slow. But if I’d blasted out the door at my recent 7:30ish speed I’d have been toast after about 3-4 miles.

I also knew, however, that once I’d gone beyond five miles or so, and certainly when I reached my second turnaround and was going to be back into the hellish wind (which was worse than ever, today), I’d be doing well to be running a 9-minute mile. So I had to run this intelligently, and it was clear that if I could get a few 8:10 or better miles in the bag early then I could sit back a bit at the end when I inevitably crumbled.

So that’s what I did. Paying very close attention to my Garmin, I notched off 8:04, 8:10, 7:58 and 8:11 opening miles, which allowed me to close with an 8:41 in mile 7, and 8:56 for the last 0.61 miles. I ran the 7 miles in 58:08, and actually got a second wind around the 55-minute mark so actually ran 7.61 miles in total, for a time of 1:03.29.

As soon as I stopped I regretted it - I could and probably should have ran 8 miles, or maybe more (I was even contemplating a 10-mile at one point, but it was pretty late in the day by then and I knew my family were waiting on me to eat dinner). But overall I’m pretty pleased.

According to the data on my Garmin Training Center, I burned 1053 calories. It certainly felt like that.

(Curiously, today was my off-day, food-wise. I had cheese on toast for breakfast, and after getting some much-needed and overdue sleep (from 10.30-15.30) I woke and then consumed one donut, one thick slice of wholemeal bread with butter and an apple, all washed down with a Coke, some coffee and a pint of water. It seemed to do the trick. I’ve consistently had great workouts on my cheat days. There must be something to it. I mean, that’s what all the pros seem to do in adventure races and the like - eat junk, and lots of it.

After my run, we had pizza, but I could barely manage a couple of slices. How Dean Karnazes manages to eat them while running is anybody’s guess.)

Oddly, perhaps through sunburn or some-such, a small cut has opened up on my nose. Because I routinely wipe away the sweat on my face on my white coolmax singlet, when I finished my workout it was quite heavily dotted with bloodspots. War of attrition, and all that.

Splits and chart:

This week, I’ve logged 32.28 miles, and 4:17.36 hours, for an average speed of 7:58/mile. This is the same as last week, when I ran 8 miles less. That’s quite a big leap - 33 per cent - and I’ll just be trying to maintain the 30-mile area for the next week or two.

I’m pretty sure I’m close to having to ice up my knees after each workout. My left one is quite tender most of the day and while it’s not a problem right now, I want to make sure it never becomes one. That knee has been an on-and-off issue for me for most of my sporting life. It used to play up a lot when I was young, particularly on a basketball court.

Some kind of recovery run beckons tomorrow!

• (3) Comments
• Permalink
• RSS 2.0
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•