40!
Knocked out my 40-miler today. It was a great experience.
For all the gory details, browse here: http://billanders.wordpress.com/2008/09/21/40/
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 09/21/2008
- Time: 00:00:00
- Total Time: 7:15:57.00
- Average Heart rate: 129
- Max Heart rate: 144
- Calories: 5733
- Distance: 40 miles
- Average Pace: 10:53.36/mile
- Max Pace: 7:32.26/mile
- Ascent: 293 ft
- Descent: 293 ft
Filed under: Fitness, Galloway, Inspiration, Iraq, Marathon, Nutrition, Run, race report
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21.0 Negative Split
No network connectivity back at the room for a few days and the computer’s acting up, so I can’t post the chart, but this was one good negative split.
Took off at a comfortable 10:15/mile pace, keeping to the 4 min run/1 min walk strategy. Decided that was a bit quicker than I needed to be going, so backed off a little bit, but never let my overall pace go above 10:26/mile pace. Hit 11 miles and was feeling good. The next 10 miles were consistently faster than the previous. By the time I hit mile 18, I was holding a 8:00/mile to 8:15/mile pace for the run portions; individual for miles 18-21 were all under 10:00/mile, including the two minutes of walking.
I did have three off-the-clock fuel reloads. Doing these runs unsupported, I have to make a side trip to refill my water bottles. Not to mention sucking down a can of ice cold coke at mile 15.
For my first several long runs here, I kept the clock running just like in a race. But it really wreaked havoc with my average pace, etc., which didn’t seem representative of the effort. Had these been supported runs, I’d grab the water and keep moving. So I made the decision to do them off the clock.
This run was quite a unique experience too; one that made me reflect on how full my life has been so far. I didn’t know until that afternoon that we were going to have a lunar eclipse, peaking at 80% while I’d be out on my run. It was quite odd to start out the run with a full moon and that lighting, which allowed me to get off of the asphalt and run on the rough dirt shoulders. But by mile 15, it was definitely dark and I didn’t dare run on the shoulders anymore, for fear of hitting a hole and turning an ankle.
All the while, the local mosques were rolling out their eclipse prayers, which were actually quite beautiful to listen to while running. Apparently there is a specific prayer for eclipses and it’s the same for both solar and lunar eclipses.
Definitely another page added to life’s experiences.
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 08/16/2008
- Time: 20:15:00
- Total Time: 3:35:05.00
- Average Heart rate: 134
- Max Heart rate: 148
- Calories: 3067
- Distance: 21 miles
- Average Pace: 10:14.33/mile
- Max Pace: 8:20/mile
- Ascent: 110 ft
- Descent: 110 ft
Filed under: Fitness, Galloway, Inspiration, Iraq, Marathon, Run, Walk
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19 Miles
Standard Saturday long run. I was beginning to worry that it wouldn’t happen with the dust. But it settled quickly after sunset and the breeze made for a nice evening.
Changed up some things with this run. Switched from a 5′/30″ run/walk strategy to a more typical Galloway-esque 4′/1′. I was hesitant, thinking the one minute walk would really put a damper on the pace. Not at all. Matter of fact, I’m sure it actually helped me maintain and increase my overall pace. Plus, I wasn’t as rushed as I felt during my 30″ feeds.
Looking back at last week’s 17-miler, I started to hit the wall at about mile 16. I know it was a combination of things, but I looked hard at my fueling. I was eating one Clif Blok pack per hour, which is only 200 calories. So I bumped it up to 1.5 packs (300 cals) and I felt good the whole time. And a can of cold Pepsi at mile 15 really tasted good. I’ll have to work that one in to the long runs from now on.
I’ll post the pic of my pace later. My overall pace never wavered more than 10 seconds the entire run, between 10:42 and 10:52. I negative split the course, with a steadily dropping overall pace after mile 10. And I had enough energy at the end to pick it up for the last two miles and cruised in to the finish at a 8:04 pace for the last half mile. I wasn’t sprinting, just cruising comfortably.
Tonight’s an 8-miler on the treadmill (for the cushioning), then recovery week. WHOOO HOOOO!
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 08/02/2008
- Time: 20:40:00
- Total Time: 3:25:20.00
- Average Heart rate: 125
- Max Heart rate: 144
- Calories: 2779
- Distance: 19 miles
- Average Pace: 10:48.65/mile
- Max Pace: 8:03.87/mile
- Ascent: 124 ft
- Descent: 124 ft
Filed under: Fitness, Galloway, Inspiration, Iraq, Run
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Long run
17 on the plan, 16.79 in the books. I reached my end point and just didn’t feel the need to shuffle an additional .21 miles just to make the number.
Just didn’t feel it. I never felt bad, but just didn’t feel “good”. Never found the groove, except for close to mile 14 when I saw a badly needed porta-john up ahead; amazing how the pace can pick up with the proper motivation.
It was a hot one too. At 8pm when I started it was 106F and cooled down to 100F at 11pm when I finished. Lots of water and electrolyte balancing.
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 07/26/2008
- Time: 20:00:00
- Total Time: 3:06:15.00
- Average Heart rate: 128
- Max Heart rate: 143
- Calories: 2461
- Distance: 16.79 miles
- Average Pace: 11:05.43/mile
- Max Pace: 8:44.78/mile
- Ascent: 71 ft
- Descent: 71 ft
Filed under: Fitness, Galloway, Iraq, Marathon, Run
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Hot 15
Even at 10pm it was 94F. I went through 4 liters of water and was quite nicely hydrated. Actually had to stop to relieve some pressure.
All perfectly within Zones 1 and 2. Not even a touch in Zone 3, which was surprising considering the heat.
Resurrected my Galloway-esque run plan, with 5 minutes running, 30 seconds walking. Even with a couple of relatively long stops to reload my water bottles, I still came in a few minutes quicker than the same course a few weeks ago, where I ran the entire distance straight through. And I felt stronger at the end than the last time.
Gotta stick with the run/walk on these longer runs. It really works.
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 07/17/2008
- Time: 21:00:00
- Total Time: 2:37:02.00
- Average Heart rate: 131
- Max Heart rate: 142
- Calories: 2223
- Distance: 15 miles
- Average Pace: 10:28.27/mile
- Max Pace: 8:32.82/mile
- Ascent: 77 ft
- Descent: 77 ft
Filed under: Fitness, Galloway, Iraq, Marathon, Run, Walk
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Cruisin’ 12
The long run for my recovery week (hehe, I typed “weak” there; Freudian slip, perhaps?).
Another beautiful day for a long run. I’ve lucked into those the past several weekends. Overcast, 45 degrees, a breath of wind to cool me down when I turn into it. Very nice.
I’m still trying to sort out my optimum run/walk ratio. Today I employed a 6-minute run/30-second walk strategy. It worked just fine also, keeping me right in my average half-marathon finish time without really pushing myself. And this was a training run!
The first couple of miles were a very comfortable 9:10-pace, then I slowly picked it up. By mile 6, my average pace was down to 8:58, where I held it for a couple of miles. It fell apart at 9.5-miles, but that was my own doing.
One of the great things about this Galloway method is that I don’t really pay attention to my pace as I’m running. It’s a window on my Garmin, but it’s one of the small ones down in the corner. The large one at the top shows elapsed time, which is how I keep track of my run/walk times. When I’m running, I go as I feel.
So at 9.5-miles, I was feeling good. Cruising the flats, getting ready to make a right turn up a gradual 1/4-mile long hill. Through that stretch I was holding a 6:00-pace. On one hand, that was my undoing for the last 2.5 miles. On the other hand, it’s great to know that I can crank out a pace like that deep into a longer run.
The next couple of miles really weren’t much slower than average, sitting right at 9:05-pace. I could just feel the glutes and ITB starting to tighten up, paying me back for my effort. The last mile pretty much melted down, dropping to 9:58.
After a tall glass of chocolate milk and a shower, it’s time to stretch those glutes and ITB’s out.
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 04/05/2008
- Time: 10:35:00
- Total Time: 1:49:34.00
- Average Heart rate: 146
- Max Heart rate: 157
- Calories: 1826
- Distance: 12.05 miles
- Average Pace: 9:05.45/mile
- Max Pace: 6:00/mile
- Ascent: 324 ft
- Descent: 324 ft
Filed under: "trigger point", Fitness, Flexibility, Galloway, Nutrition, Run
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Last “half” of “Weekend Marathon”
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 03/30/2008
- Time: 10:30:00
- Total Time: 1:47:38.00
- Average Heart rate: 148
- Max Heart rate: 163
- Calories: 1737
- Distance: 11.53 miles
- Average Pace: 9:19.88/mile
- Max Pace: 7:04.03/mile
- Ascent: 260 ft
- Descent: 260 ft
Filed under: Fitness, Galloway, General Cardio, Inspiration, Marathon, Run, Walk
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Marathon Weekend
Well, not that I’m running a marathon, but I’m running a marathon.
Today was supposed to be a 20-miler, with tomorrow my standard Sunday day off. With the run, two mid-terms due tomorrow, work piling up (at home and at work) and some other commitments, there was no way I had time to run the 20-miler this morning, unless I was up at 4am and running by 5am.
I’m a morning person, but that time of day is for studying, not for stumbling through the trails in the dark.
The I was reading a post on Gary Ditsch’s blog about the anti-20, meaning that there’s a fair bit of resistance against the standard 20-miler, in terms of damage and recovery. His post certainly wasn’t the first time I had read such ideas, so it got me to thinking (dangerous, I know).
Instead of 20 on Saturday and nothing on Sunday, I decided to split the run. Saturday would be 15 and Sunday would be 10. That would give me 25 for the weekend (watch out, math in public). I could squeeze both in comfortably, along with everything else going on, and not stress myself.
So today’s 15 was great. Started out at 42 degrees and never warmed up. Pretty breezy, but I kept to the hollers and trees, so it wasn’t much of an issue. I was very comfortable the entire time and decided that tomorrow’s run is going to be at least 11 miles so that I’ve covered the marathon distance this weekend. For no good reason other than to do it. Kind of like riding back to back centuries on a weekend - not necessary, but sometimes you just have to do it.
I decided that for now I’m following the Galloway plan on any run longer than 13 miles, so that’s what I did today. Run 4 minutes, walk 30 seconds. Following that scheme, last Saturday’s 16-miler ended up at 10:16 pace, today’s 15-miler over the same course was at 9:47 pace, including a strong 8:05 pace for the last half mile for the finish.
We’ll see how well the run-walk strategy works tomorrow when I start out on my 11-miler. The one thing that impressed me with the run-walk last weekend was how good my legs felt the next few days. Hopefully that holds true tomorrow.
Well, gotta run.
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 03/29/2008
- Time: 06:45:00
- Total Time: 2:26:50.00
- Average Heart rate: 141
- Max Heart rate: 152
- Calories: 2259
- Distance: 15 miles
- Average Pace: 9:47.28/mile
- Max Pace: 7:22.8/mile
- Ascent: 1,161 ft
- Descent: 1,161 ft
Filed under: Fitness, Galloway, Marathon, Run, Walk
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