Saturday, August 24, 2013

Great ... I Mean GREAT Winter Long Run!!!

Ahhh ... light snow falling on the bare tree limbs on August 24th ... phsych.
Ha, fooled ya with that headline ... it's not Winter ... actually it's still hot as a banshee here in KC.  Friggin' 80 degrees with 94% humidity this morning.  That felt great!  So I had to keep telling myself over and over, "It's not that hot ... huff-whew-puff ... think about winter!"  So I just put myself mentally in this picture as much as possible.  And you know what, it totally ... didn't work!  Still too hot to breath.

But, even though the conditions were simply stifling ... drum roll please ... I MURDERED THAT FRIGGIN' LONG RUN!!!  8 miles at 6:59 ... yeaaaaah boyeeee!!!  It was so good to have a positive long run after last week's bomb.  I've been working pretty hard and really needed a little confidence booster.  This morning's run did just that!

I started pretty slow and warmed up for a few miles before getting progressively faster for the first 8 miles.  After that, I pressed that pace at a 6:59 average for the next 8.  And then just ran 4 cool down/recovery miles to finish up.  Here are the splits ...

Miles 1-8 ... 8:18,   7:55,   7:50,   7:38,   7:32,   7:31,   7:23,   7:24  (good controlled progression)
Miles 9-16 ... 7:13,   7:00,   7:00,   6:55,   6:55,   6:59,   6:58,   6:57  (8 mile average pace@6:59)
Miles 17-20 ... 7:55,   7:57,   8:30,   8:38  (cool down/recovery)

I took 2 salt tablets and two gels, one each at miles 8 and 16.  They both really seemed to help today.  I also drank about 10oz of beet juice about 2 hours before I started.  I didn't really notice any discernible difference in my performance.  But I think it's going to be really tough to ever really quantify the results of the beet juice.  The good news is that it had absolutely no effect on my stomach - so I'll probably try it again.

Today's run capped a 70 mile "recovery week".  Yeah, the mileage is up there - but "recovery" in the sense that I didn't do any Speed or Tempo workouts.  Just three midweek runs on the slower side, which my legs and body kinda needed.  But this week it's back to the grindstone with a couple of faster-paced workouts.  Today's run is still not where I need to be for the Chicago Marathon - but it was a good step in the right direction.  Hope your training's going well - have a great weekend!
... be great today!

11 comments:

  1. Great run, Jim!
    Did I miss something about beet juice? Is this a new thing for runners? You have me curious.

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    1. Raina, see the post before this one - I'm just experimenting with it.

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  2. I'm going to try beet juice for sure. Your post about it is the second thing I've seen touting it. And (score) I actually *like* beets.

    Great long run! Your training is definitely going better than mine. Chicago is going to be an interesting adventure.

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  3. 70 miles.......that's a lot. That would be a good biking week!

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  4. So, your recovery week is more miles than I've ever run in a week.

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  5. Nice long run! Specially with this heat and humidity. A 70 mile week is impressive too.

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  6. Great 20 miler. Mine wasn't as hot as yours, but I dreamt of snow during today's run. It was hot enough.

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  7. There's a bit of a different tone in this post to last week's. I'm so glad you got your good long run finally. It makes all those tough ones worth it.

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  8. Wow, 70 miles is a recovery week? You are a badass!!!

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  9. Awesome run in the heat, well done! I think the salt tabs and the gels together helps to keep a better balance in the body between sweet and salt. I've never felt nauseous from gels or other sweet things if I take some salt tabs during a run as well.

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  10. You took the salt and the gu together? How did that work out? I usually try to separate the two in case of stomach issues.

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