I was not able to do any more running this week since I went on a business trip to Seattle and came back yesterday evening. I woke up early in the morning, had my protein drink and reached the running trail at 6 am in the morning. It was a little cold but the weather was good for running. I decided to run with the 8:50-9:15 min/mile group which is about 15 seconds faster than the group that I ran the 19 miles with. I wanted to see how long I could keep up the pace with this group.
We started well, doing 4 miles at 9 min/mile which is a pace that I was comfortable with. Then the group began accelerating a little doing about 8:45 min/mile. I struggled a bit to keep up this pace but I was able to catch up with them during the water breaks. I was able to keep pace with the group until 15 miles. At this time, I was fully exhausted and I just gave up and started walking for some time. From here on, it was running for a mile and walking for about a minute. I somehow managed to finish the 20 miles in 3hr3 min (9:09 min/mile). Ideally, I would have liked to finish this in 2h57 minutes. This was my toughest long run so far since I started cramping down after 17 miles and had to really muster all the strength I had to finish the last 3 miles. One of the main reasons for this might be that I didn't train this entire week. This coupled with pushing my pace for the first 15 miles made this the challenge of the season so far. One of the key takeaway's from this is to know what pace you are comfortable with and just stick to that pace for about 80% of the run and then speed up for the last 20%. Otherwise, there is a big risk of running out of gas pretty soon and you risk not being able to finish the marathon at all. I am particularly vulnerable to boosting my pace during the first 8 miles of my run. I should make a conscious effort to not do this during the marathon.
Here are the stats from the GPS:
Activity | Type | Activity | Type | Miles | Time (HH:MM:SS) | Avg. Pace (min/Mile) | Avg. Speed | Calories Burnt | Avg. Heart Rate |
Morning | Morning | Evening | Evening |
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Running | Long Run | Strength | Chest,Back,Abs | 20:01 | 3:03:21 | 9:09 | 6.5 | 2576 | 161 |
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1 comment:
Mighty impressive! You're faster than I was while training for my first marathon last year. Do not attempt to go fast in the first 8 miles, you really need to save all your energy for the last 3. Your marathon pace will be faster in all likelihood - do not underestimate the power of adrenalin and great crowd support. ;-)
Thrilled to hear you too are raising money for Asha. Cheers!
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