MT W3;R1

• 10.09mi
  Distance (?)
 
• 1:55:04
   Moving Time
 
• 11:24/mi
  Pace
 
• 158
  Massive Relative Effort

Another long run in the books and overall I feel pretty good. Feels good to say that I did a full 10 this time. I took a look back and my ~10 mi runs when I was training for my first half marathon in 2015. What's interesting now is how few runs I have done at and beyond 10 miles. 4, just 4! It makes sense that when else would I be pushing distance than in preparation for a half. The other interesting bit is that my pace isn't that far off.

That said, it feel like I should/ could be faster. Preferable under 10/mi pace. Maybe I'm just slow, I know I'm not much of a sprinter. But for distance this is still slow. 

What I liked about this morning's run. I did start closer to 7am! Woke up around 5:30am and on top of the normal weekday morning routine I prepared two new foods. The diy UCAN chocolate race fuel and Maple sports drink I may have added too much salt to the race fuel and no additional sweetener. I had my doubts that this would stay down. I consumed one serving about 45mins per run and experience the tale tell signs of coughing and burping. However much to my surprise, for the 2 hour run I felt great. I wasn't hungry at all.

Around 4 miles in I tried the maple drink, that also seemed to work well. No BONKing. This was the first run with the hydration reservoir, I filled it up to 1.5 L and drank 0.5 L.

I was going to work so I was also carrying clothes, shoes, lunch, and breakfast. At the gym I weighed the bag, it was 20lbs. which seems high maybe it was closer to 10lbs. and I couldn't do math at that point.

During the run I went off road a bit for a partial "trail run". All told it was less than a mile, but it was something.

Near the end my ankles were getting sore, although I've been stand all day since and feel fine. I need to figure out how to get 3 runs a week in, if not 4.  

MT W1;R2

• 9.68mi
  Distance (?)
 
• 1:43:58
   Moving Time
 
• 10:44/mi
  Pace
 
• 207
  Massive Relative Effort

I really need to figure out what the Relative Effort means. This was my first long run of the training so far. I think I would have felt better if I just pushed through the last 3 tenths of a mile to get the full 10 miles in. Overall I know it doesn't matter, that's what I keep telling myself.

I should look back at some earlier long runs to see how this compares. I had wanted to start at 7am but didn't get going until closer to 8:30. I tried a couple new things. I had a little bit of a smoothie and a Rice Krispie treat before heading out. I had two water bottles and some maple syrup to test as a gel replacement. 

I probably had close to 2 pints of water from the time I woke up 6am until I ran, hoping that being more hydrated would lead to more success. 

Running in my vibrams as ok. I started to feel some small blisters forming around the 4mi mark. I did stop to try and remove any dirt but that didn't help. I'm not sure what I should do in the future to prevent them from getting worse. Near the 5 mi mark I was feeling hungry at this point it was a bit past 9am and normally I would have finished my breakfast by than. I tried my maple syrup that I packed in a reusable kids food pouch. I would say that the pouch worked OK, but there was more effort involved in sucking it out then I would have liked. They syrup did help with me energy level but I still felt hungry. More work to be done on fueling, but this was a good start. 

I wanted to try the diy UCAN but we didn't have enough corn starch. I'm thinking that in order to be successful I need to carry something more substantial to fill me up. I want to try raisins next. I felt like my running pack won't hold enough fuel for me. I did order a hydration reservoir and with that I can ditch the bottles and store snacks in those front pockets.

By the end of the run I was feeling pretty much done, physically. There was a fairly steep hill at the end so that was part of it, the other problem is that I still have a ways to go physically. But it felt pretty good to be out there for so long.

I was also chased by one dog, that was not fun. I had seen the owner yelling at his dog in a half hearted effort to get the dog back. I wasn't even that close to the dog when he started to chase me. I stopped and the dog stopped. It was barking at me, but not biting. The owner apologized and mumbled something about the dog that I didn't understand. I thought about grabbing the leash but I didn't have it in me. So I kept going, this was around mile 8.

Post run, I had my smoothie, drank some chocolate milk, and ice coffee. I felt fine but was pretty tired that evening. The next day my legs feel a bit tired, so I'll rest them today. 

MT W2;R1

• 4.68mi
  Distance (?)
 
• 45:38
   Moving Time
 
• 9:45/mi
  Pace
 
• 95
  Relative Effort

I missed both training runs in the first week a farklet run and a long run. I was feeling pretty down about the situation, not off to a good start. Perhaps I'm going to be over my head with the race in August and September.  Talking to a friend perhaps a trail marathon will be too much. I have no idea how long it will take to finish. Will I be able to fuel enough during the race? Should I try to do the 15 mi option instead?

I've done a bit of reading about fueling before/during/after a run. The trick is finding something that will work when I start running first thing in the morning. I'm going to try Rice Krispies tomorrow morning when I attempt a 2 hour run. I want to see if I can handle maple syrup mid run instead of using gel of some kind. I did a bit of reading on UCAN generation which is a "super starch" (whatever that means). Turns out that you can make your own, which I may also try tomorrow. I'll try to wake up a little early and work on hydrating. My suspicion is that I'm too dehydrated first thing in the morning to handle anything in my tum tum.

As for today's run, it was a normal midday longish loop around the Charles. A mile or so in my right knee had some slight pain that went away before too long. 3 miles in I was feeling a bit hungry. Normally I run a bit earlier so I should have had something else. I think ideally I'd like to get back closer to a 9:00/mi pace. I think I'm just more out of shape than I think I should be. I'm not sure what to think about the Relative Effort of 95. In fact I'm not sure what that means. I think it means that for running a nearly 10:00/mi pace I am out of shape for the effort to be so high.

At least I ran today. We'll see how I feel tomorrow. 

Marathon Training Week 1: Run 1

• 3.77mi
  Distance (?)
 
• 39:18
   Moving Time
 
• 10:25/mi
  Pace
 
• 74
  Relative Effort

Since my last post I've lots have happened. Currently I am following a Strava Marathon 12 week plan. This plan will conclude with the Rockport Triple threat ~17mi. 

I'll continue a modified plan to prepare for the Groton Trail Marathon a month later. 

One concern is the ability keep food down before, during, and after a long run. When I did the half marathon, I didn't bother with food. I had a few sips of water and that was it. I was certainly feeling out of gas by the end. I'm trying to avoid that this year.

This morning I had half a smoothie and some water and had no problems. As for the run itself, I had a backpack with lunch and clothes for work. It felt pretty slow and somewhere around 20 minutes I felt like I was starting to pick up some steam, instead of losing it.

Today was meant to be a 30-40 min easy run. Thursday is farklets, I need to figure out how to do that without an app telling me when to start and stop.