Sixteen Miles the Easy Way

Half run, half walk. In a few short weeks I’ll be running a marathon without really being trained for one. I figure I’m trained OK for a half marathon right now, but for various reasons I haven’t done a run longer than 10 miles since November. I could just go TRY to run a 20-miler, but that would invite injury. So today the girls and I ran for about three hours on the indoor track, and for most of that I ran a half mile and then walked the second half. It really worked pretty well. The pace was slow, but on target for about a 5-hour marathon. Considering that my most recent three marathons averaged about 4:30 when I was supposedly trained for them, 5 hours is OK.

Does a runner have a most-efficient running pace? A pace that uses the least energy and causes the least wear and tear PER MILE? I think so. Go faster than that pace and burn up too much of the body’s resources too quickly. We know this is true because, when we run a mile as fast as we can, there just isn’t much left for any more miles. Or, go slower than the most-efficient running pace and we expend almost as much energy and resources just to keep going, but we don’t get done soon enough. There’s a "sweet spot," or so I believe, though it may be fairly broad. For me that seems to be a pace of roughly 8:45 to 9:15 right now.

But I certainly can’t run 9:15 for a whole 26 miles, not yet anyway. So some of the distance has to be walked. My current theory is that we may be better off running at our most-efficient pace and walking some, rather than trying to run the whole way, but more slowly at a less-efficient pace. Galloway thinks so too. The question is "how much walking?" For today, half and half (by distance) was decided in advance. I found myself going about 8:45 to 8:50 when running, and about 13:44 when walking. That’s a brisk walk, by the way. Entirely coincidental that 13:44 is exactly the required pace for a 6-hour marathon.

Results:

• Plenty of energy left at the end of 16 miles;
• In fact I felt fine and ran the last two without walking;
• Mild backache (left side, belly-button high, muscle, not bones or joints) from the walking, not the running;
• I tried to bind up last Thursday’s blister beforehand, but it bled a little anyway;
• Knee and hip joints feel like they’ve gone all 16 miles; but
• Muscles don’t. That’s cool.

One nice feature of this technique: During the run half of a mile I looked forward to the walk, and during the walk half I actually looked forward to the run. It was quite enjoyable; the three hours passed quickly.

I guess this was my long run for the marathon, unless we do it again next week. That’s OK.. I took water every two miles and Clif Shot twice.

Splits: 11:21, 11:11, 11:05, 11:13, 11:12, 11:13, 11:07, 11:13, 11:18, 11:27, 11:12, 11:26, 11:15, 11:26, 8:52, 8:35, total 2:55:04. Overall pace 10:57. Time for the first 14 miles 2:37:38, pace for that distance 11:16. Required pace for a 5-hour marathon 11:26.



Dinner: Wild-caught Alaskan sockeye salmon with organic yogurt and herbs, organic blueberries, organic beet greens with orange slices.


Lunch: Sloppy joes with ground no-hormone no-antibiotics grain-fed beef and organic catsup, organic broccoli, organic refried beans with organic mustard, ruby red grapefruit.