First and Ten
The first long, slow, distance run (LSD) leading up to my next marathon is completed. I have 10 weeks of training to go.
This morning I was awake before the alarm woke me. Wish I could say it was because I was so excited to get up and go on a training run. It was due to a robin who chose to nest on the support beam under our deck and the cool evening. The cool evening allowed us to shut the A/C off and open the windows. Our bedroom is not too far from our deck. Mother robin must be that early bird who gets the worm because they were a chirpin this morning. Don’t worry I didn’t evict them but I did think about it. Since I was up I figured I might as will stay up and go for a run.
I am not a camel so I always have to have a plan on how and where I am going to put my Gatorade so I can hydrate periodically during my LSD runs. I have placed bags in ditches, left coolers in ditches, placed Gatorade in mailboxes and have left Gatorade in the back of my pick up. I figure where the best locations might be and than plan my route. There is a web site called mapmyrun.com that works well for this. For today’s run I had the luxury of using my mailbox. My daughter’s mailbox and my son’s mailbox. With the help of mapmyrun.com I was able to plan out 3.5 mile loops that took me to the mailboxes. At about every 3.5 miles I was able to get a drink and carry on.
The LSD run went extremely well. I cruised pretty much through the entire 16.2 miles I ran today. My pace was a good pace for my level, that being weight and age. I managed a 10:05 pace over the entire 16 miles. All miles except one that did not include a stop for a drink was at least 10 seconds better than a 10:00 pace. My best mile was mile 15 to 16. Today was a big confidence boost.
I did make a change this week to try and help pick me up a little bit. My pace seemed to have slowed in my shorter runs despite the feeling that I was moving at a good pace. So I decided to change things up by using my Ipod again. I had stopped using the Ipod because at Grandmas Marathon you are not allowed to run with Ipods. I had stopped wearing my Ipod 2 weeks prior to the marathon. I found my runs without the Ipod were enjoyable and kind of spiritual so I continued running without the Ipod as I began my training for my second marathon. As I said my run pace seemed to have slowed and I thought a change would help. My last three runs have all shown improvement in my pace. Change is good.
Moving forward into next week I will increase my short runs just a bit and add a longer midweek run in there somewhere. I will end the week with another LSD of somewhere around 18 miles. Following next week a little step back week that will see the LSD go down to about 14. That will be followed by week that should end with a 20+ mile LSD. It’s just getting good at this point.
Thanks again for checking up on me. Feel free to join me next time you’re in the Twin Cities area.