The 10-mile Long Run: Aug-23-08

The maximum long run that I had done so far was 9.2 miles. So, today was going to be the longest run that I would do. It was going to be around the Whitewater lake. The weather was not so great. It was hot and humid…a deadly killer combination to do any running let alone the long run.

I got up late and reached the meeting point at 7:07 am. The running group was just about to start. I joined the group just in time ! I run with the 11 min/mile and below group although my pace is a little over 10 min /mile. This is because the other full marathon group is 10 min / mile and below. I didn't want to push myself in the beginning and so I joined the 11 min/mile group. The first 5 or 6 runners in this group are similar to me i.e. they are at 10 min / mile pace and so lead the pack. For the past 2 weeks, I have been running along with a buddy from Asha for the long run since his pace is pretty similar to him. It's always a good idea to find atleast one more person who is pretty similar to your pace and run along with him/her. This way you minimize the break time and tend to push yourself when your body want's to take rest. You will tend to continue since the other person will want to run and you don't want to slow down or lose your running partner.

I did the first 3 miles in 30 minutes. Then we took a break. For a change, I was not counting my breaks since I just wanted to time the actual run's and not the breaks. I was running at a comfortable pace which is a change from my mental barrier at 3 mile that I had earlier. I used to slow down by about 20% after my first 3 miles. For the past 2 weeks, it hasn't happened. I did the next 3 miles in 31 minutes. So, I did 6 miles in 61 minutes. From here, the weather really began to take it's toll. It was about 8:15 am by the time we completed 6 miles. The sun was really showing it's might and the weather was very humid. I began to slow down to 11 min/mile and 12 min/mile sometimes. Of course, it didn't help that we were running in a unfamiliar path. I was also slowing down a bit for my running partner. That helped because he pushed me later and I was able to keep up since I had run slow earlier. We took 3 water breaks for the first 7 miles and 3 water breaks for the last 3 miles. That tells you the impact of heat on the runners. It really drains you. I finally managed to finish the 10 miles in 1 hour and 45 minutes. One of the runners who was counting the break time as well and finished at pretty much the same time as me told me that we did the 10 miles in 1 hour and 55 minutes. Note that I could have easily shaved off 10 minutes from this because I stopped for 5 minutes for my running partner to take a restroom break and wasted another 5 minutes in trying to figure out the correct route. So, the 10 minutes in break time that I didn't count was actually those that I had wasted. Here are the stats from my Garmin ! Note that my average heart rate has come down by 6 points for one mile more. This is what I would like to see in the future ! Of course the average speed has come down by 0.1 mile but this can be attributed to the horrible weather today or may be the best weather of last week J

Date	Day	Type	Miles		Time (HH:MM:SS)		Avg. Pace (min/Mile)		Avg. Speed	Calories Burnt	Avg. Heart Rate
23-Aug	Sat	Long Run	10.02	1:45:23	10:31	5.7	1359	162