230 when I woke up and 225 after 20 mile run.
I managed to get in the 20 mile run this morning after all – yay! The day started out looking not too good as when I got to the park to start my run there were a crap load of cars around. They also had some roads blocked off so obviously the run was not going to happen in the park today.
So I drove home and grabbed what I needed and headed out in the without much more than my phone / music player, GPS watch, water bottle and some jube jubes. For this length of training run I prefer to run in the park so that I can get extra water, snacks, etc from the van as needed. Instead today I did the run without that kind of cache of supplies and I wasn’t sure how things would go but gave it a shot.
I started out from the house and did a loop around the neighborhood that came up as 4.5 miles then did a 6.5 mile stretch out and back on a gravel / dirt road and then 2 more loops around the neighborhood totaling at 20 miles. The dirt road was very loose and it the first stretch out was 3.25 miles directly against a 30 km/h wind – my speed really dropped during this section and although it recovered a bit when I was back on cement and pavement it never really got back up to where it was in the first 4.5 miles.
Still in the end things felt pretty decent – I didn’t take a walking break until after 11 miles were completed and after that I took a break after every 2.2 miles (to match up with what laps in the park would be) to have some jube jubes and some water. I ran out of water after the 17.6 mile break and had to finish the run without any more water. Things were starting to feel pretty rough right at the end but I still finished without getting into walk-run cycles. I might have started cycles though if I had to finish a full marathon.
So in the end I did the run fueled by a piece of pizza and glass of coke before the run and then a bottle of water and 12 jube jubes over the course of the run. I definitely am capable of finishing a marathon at this point – the speed of the marathon is in question though.
I did the 20 miles in 3:36:36 which would factor out to 4:47 or so for a full marathon – not too awful I suppose but I was definitely hoping for better. I did go quite a bit faster during the WPS Half (6.77 mph average versus under 6 mph for the first 13.1 miles today) so I suspect once I am running in a group I will be faster plus not having to run on loose dirt for 7 miles will preserve my leg strength a while longer. Combined I should be able to get faster for the first half marathon distance (say near the 2 hour mark) and still have energy in the legs to do a decent second half. Based on the run today my goal is to be under 4:30 for the Manitoba Marathon. So this one won’t be my personal best but if I do beat 4:30 then it will be my second best which in itself will be an achievement.
So some disappointment today but some positive things as well – all in all I am glad I managed to get the run in.
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