After a miserable run on Wed. I didn't have much hope for Thrusday's run. I even told Luke, "yesterday was a bust, today may be too, so if I'm dying, please feel free to run ahead and I'll meet you at home." Real confidence, eh?
We set out and I felt good. Really good. Part of it is the weather. Part of it is the totally awesome rockin' dance party that is my 1/2 marathon play list. And I kept feeling good. I started to get patella twinges around mile 3, I had a very strange stomach thing around mile 3.5, and then I hit mile 4 and I could have gone for hours.
My pace? Average of 8:49 min mile!
It's going to be hard to rein the pace in at the start of the race. I'm considering setting my paceing notifications to occur more often (currently every 6 min). Then again, the start of the races are always slow. But I'm excited and ready.
My plan is to stick to my 10 min run, 1 min fast walk, pattern. Unfortunately this won't line up with the water stations (every 2 miles) that I will walk through in order to get water. So after the first 4 miles or so I may switch to running in-between and walking my minute at the water stations. I will do another reassessment at mile 7 and see if I can run the last 10K straight. If I'm not feeling it, I'll reassess at mile 10 and will likely run the last 5K straight. But again, this is all based on assessment of knees, cramping, etc. So, basic plan is stick to the 10 min run, 1 min walk, unless I feel really good afterI've made it at least 1/2 way, and then consider scaling back the walk breaks.
I plan to do a banana w/ some almond butter for bfast. I'm going to take 2 hammer gels expresso and a small bag of shot blocks sodium with me. My plan is to take one of the gels at 45-50 min (mile 4.5-5, when I seem to need it), and a second gel at 1h 30. It seems like more nutrition than I "should" need, but the gels stop the leaden legs that I seem to get w/o fuel every 40-50 min. I wish I had had more long runs to see if I really need the 2nd gel or if I'd be ok w/ just getting some electrolytes, but as everyone says, the race is not the day to start experimenting. If anything, I'd rather be over-prepared- esp b/c my body didn't have a problem w/ anything i put in it during the run. (Pre run is another story, only bananas and oranges seem to help me avoid death cramps).
For the most part I"m sticking to water at the water stations, although I may be up for the sodium in a gatorade towards the end. For recovery, I've got nuun tablets. I wish there way a way to carry nuun w/ me during the race w/o having to carry my water bottle. I love the bottle for long runs, but it does become a pain in the ass when I'm trying just to focus on my running and not what the damn bottle is doing.
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