Tuesday, January 14, 2014

18 and Life To Go


After running a more-or-less successful 16 miles, 18 miles was our goal last Saturday.  Our format was the same: 4 loops with brief stops at the car to fuel up in between.  This time we rotated between a 5-mile loop and the same 4-miler we did before.  We ran each twice, one after the other.

Deviating from our usual bread and cheese carbo-load the night before, A and I instead enjoyed a big veggie burrito with lots of guacamole and chips.  I felt painfully full going to bed, but woke up hungry Saturday morning.  This was a worrying sign.  I ate some bites of a protein bar and banana and hoped it would do the trick.

To prevent the energy crash on the final lap that happened to me last Saturday, A started us off much slower this time around.  The idea was to run the first 3 loops almost a minute slower than our target speed and then run the last loop at pace.  I wasn’t sure if conserving energy early on would increase my stamina, but I crossed my fingers and hoped it would work.

Thanks to the slower pace, I felt good for the first two loops.  A had to repeatedly remind me to slow down since I’m so used to hurrying to get it over with.  I tried to tell myself the first 14 miles were just a warm-up for the last, fast 4.

Even though I felt good, I still felt low on energy after lap 2, so instead of a sports chew, I took a few more big bites of the protein bar I started before the run.  This turned out to be a poor decision.  The extreme sweetness was almost nauseating and it felt like a brick in my stomach.

With my hoped-for energy source weighing me down, the third lap felt like a grind.  Even though we were much slower than the weekend before, I started to really tire around the middle of the 14th mile.  Unfortunately, we were on a crowded stretch of sidewalk and were slowly creeping up on a runner who was just a hair slower than us.  Trying to negotiate a pass with so many oncoming strollers, dogwalkers and bikers on the narrow sidewalk was difficult and annoying, so I pushed the pace just to get around her quickly.  This was my last burst of energy and I only had fumes to run on after that.

Sadly, we still had 1 lap to go.  I told A that I couldn’t run it at pace as was the plan; I was spent.  He said I could do it.  I said I could not.  I told him I would finish the run, but it had to be at my own speed.  He wanted to talk me through it, but in the end he went ahead.

For me, the last 4 miles became just about finishing.  I kept reminding myself to stay efficient and light on my feet, but I was neither.  I kept plotting the next water stop, basically willing myself from one fountain to the next.  I kept telling myself I was almost done.  I finished 4 minutes behind A, although that includes an extremely long stoplight that I could have sprinted to cross but chose to hang back for.

After the run, I came to a few conclusions:

1) For about a half-marathon distance, I can happily survive on a few sips of water every few miles.  After that, I become absolutely desperate for water.  It doesn’t matter how well-hydrated I am beforehand.  I need large gulps every mile or so and when I can’t find any water, I almost start to panic.  I’m not sure if this is mental or physical, but it’s something I need to better manage since I’m not planning on buying a water belt before the race.

2) Dense protein bars work for me before the run, but not during.  I still prefer the gels above all, but the chews are great, too, especially when I don’t have to carry them.

3) My body just shuts down after a certain amount of time on the road.  I feel I would have broken down around the same time even if we had run the first 3 loops at pace.  If my premise is correct, that means that running slower initially won’t pay dividends later on.  I’m considering a race day strategy that consists of running at A’s pace for the first half of the marathon and hopefully when I inevitably tire, at least I’ll have had the head start I need and I can hopefully will myself to the finish line.

4) The next day after a long run I’m perfectly fine.  In fact, after both long runs I’m able to run a fast 4 miles 2 days later.  This makes me feel like I’m not putting in enough effort during our long training runs, like I’m not leaving it all out on the road.  I don’t know if that’s what I should be doing, but considering I need very little recovery time, I wonder if I’m not working hard enough.

A ended up doing the last 4 miles at exactly the speed he wanted.  And since my mapping was a little off, we both ended up running a half-mile longer than intended.  I was happy to have 18.5 under my belt, but more importantly, I’m glad we’re trying out different strategies on our long runs to figure out what kind of race we’ll need to run to meet our goals.

No comments:

Post a Comment