In a rush to get out of the house and up to the Gateway Trail, I forgot my watch. Seems like I’m always forgetting something. But I rarely forget my cell phone, and I had it today, so I used it to time this run. Since this 10-miler will be the longest run remaining in the taper for a marathon, I wanted to run marathon pace, about 9:30. I’d love to run faster, but at my present level of fitness and ability I’d be plenty happy to finish in 4:15:59, which is the Boston qualifying time for my age group and requires a pace of 9:45. Based on other recent long runs I’m unlikely to be able to do that, but there is a possibility so I have to try.
Anyway no problem with the pace today. It seemed rather easy, actually. I looked at the cell phone at each milepost to be sure that the time from the last milepost was either 9 minutes or 10 - my cell doesn’t show seconds. That worked well enough. In the end I finished the 10 miles in 1:34, for a pace of 9:24. I took gels two times and water every two miles, walking while drinking, but no other walking on this run. Saw my sweeties a couple of times on the trail too. Good enough, but no clue what would happen in 16 more miles.
Splits: 10, 9, 10, 9, 10, 9, 9, 10, 9, 9. Perfect weather, low humidity and 62 degrees, no pains, and after the run I feel great - It’s a masterpiece.
Monday, Jun 9:
I decided not to run on Sunday, because I felt pretty sluggish Saturday. Seems now like a good choice. Today I just wanted to work the muscles enough to retain any fitness they might have, so I shot for a pace of 9:30, approximately the pace I’d like to run in an upcoming marathon. The route was local and somewhat hilly, and I ran 3.3 miles in 30:05, for a pace of 9:07. Overshot slightly on the pace, but hey this was “dex day”!
Splits: 9:18, 9:08, 11:39 (1.3 mi). No pains, good run, it’s a masterpiece.
Post-run breakfast/lunch: Gluten-free oatmeal with organic flame raisins and dried cranberries, banana, organic strawberries, Don's nut/fruit/berry mix, blueberries, organic walnuts, nonfat organic milk. Not shown: Pomegranate juice, two fried eggs.
Dinner: Wild-caught Alaskan sockeye salmon (canned) with yogurt & dill, organic peas, organic strawberries (Size: HUGE), very nice beer. I love peas and had seconds and thirds.
Ha! Very creative to use a cell phone to time the run with its minutes only format. I looked at my cell phone (I recently noted that it told time) and yup, no seconds. Two years ago, before I bought my $50 Timex Iron Man watch (now I keep track of splits on marked trails), my world consisted of stopwatch time on my 19.95 Armitron, which was fine for me. Each mile marker I did the math in my head from what I remembered of the last mile marker time and determined, Good or Bad. Now I look at other runners' heart monitor readouts, topographical printouts, workout downloads, elevation printouts and go, Wow. I just run. Of course I'm talkin' Garmins and maybe in a few years I'll trade in my Ironman for one of those. The practice of running a 10-miler using a gross timing method like blunt minutes (no seconds) has a certain appeal. A return to the mere exercise of running. Obviously I'm showing my age.
ReplyDeleteI agree - there was a certain freedom in running without the precise metrics.
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