1930 EDT - Washington DC...only 1 week left on this trip. I am looking forward to returning home. I really miss Tanya and the kids. My training has been going pretty good, all things considered. It has been tougher than I anticipated to maintain a good training regimen while on this trip. I have been more tired than usual and I feel like I haven't been working out with the same intensity and effort as I normally would. I have also been eating and drinking more than I normally would as well. Ugh! Anyway, I have stuck to the program and I continue to be please with the results. Hard to believe I have been doing this for 10 weeks already. 2 months to go!
I was up early (0500) Thursday morning to do my training. Ran to the base track and did 4 x 1 mile repeats with 2 minute recoveries. 2 minutes ended up being less than 400m but I wanted to stick to the 2 min time. They were cooking bacon the the chow hall which was very distracting! This was a pretty tough workout but I pushed as hard as I could. You can look at the data, I think it was a good workout.
Friday was my dedicated SnC day. I learned that in the "Bee Fit" center there is a TRX (Bee is short for Seabee...this is a big Seabee base...get it??!! :) ). I was pretty excited. I didn't know that last Friday. Both my SnC routines use the TRX a lot and I enjoy it so I was looking forward to using it. I did my warm up and non-TRX exercises in the gym and walked across to the Bee Fit center. They were closed. They close at 1300 on Fridays. I guess you can Bee Fit anytime you want as long as it isn't on Friday afternoon. I walked back over to the gym and did several non TRX exercises.
Saturday was my travel day to DC. I was up early to get my short (4 mi) run in. I almost didn't go because I was up late washing clothes. I'm glad I decided to go because as you can imagine I spent most of the day sitting down!
I reached another personal running milestone today...20 miles. I got a decent night's sleep and was up about 0600. I left about 0645. I would have left earlier, but I didn't want to wear my headlamp so I wanted to minimize running in the dark. I couldn't have picked a better morning nor a better place to do this LSD. It was a cold clear morning. Much colder than sunny Southern California! The sun was coming up over the city as I was running along the Potomac River. What a treat. Of course I ran across the river and around the National Mall. I was listening to music on the iPod shuffle (on shuffle mode) and as I came across the bridge behind the Lincoln Memorial "Born in the USA" came. Corny, but absolutely true!! As I was running around the mall past all the monuments I was thinking about how much I am looking forward to teaching my children what it means to be an American. Zetta of course has never lived here in her short life. It will be a while before she is old enough to understand. We will probably have moved back to the US by then. Marshall hasn't lived here since he was 18 months and doesn't remember it. He is aware though that he is from America. We talk about it often though and we read some patriotic books from time to time. I bought some more books and other Americana today. It was fun shopping for that stuff and I'm sure the kids will like it.
Overall I felt pretty good on this run. I did it too without carrying any water (good thing it was cold) or energy source (gel, etc). Probably not a wise choice, but I didn't bring my water bottle along. I didn't bring any gels along because the guy at Road Runner Sports recommend to eat them with water. I ate one before I left and he was right! Water is essential when eating these things. The are very gooey and sweet!. I probably would have been sick and very thirsty had I eaten one along the way without water. My legs started getting pretty sore about mile 12. Unusual for me since I don't usually have problems on the half. Even so, it didn't really bother me until after mile 15. My legs were pretty sore those last 5 miles...not enough to stop though! Overall I was pretty pleased with my performance. I was disappointed with my pace on the last 5 miles...about 50 sec slower than the first 15. I'm not sure why that happened. Maybe it was because my legs were so sore, but I'm not sure. I could have run faster, but I wanted to keep my HR down at the required intensity (136 bpm) Weird I thought. Nonetheless I was very happy with how things went today. I am confident now that if I stay injury free, I can finish the marathon under 4 hours. I am looking to do much better than that, of course.
I was also happy that I didn't have the urgent need to use the toilet, like has happened previously! Frankly, I thought that would happen. When I left I wasn't overly concerned because there are some porta-potties in the park just north of National Airport ( I have run here before) and I knew there were some public toilets on the mall. As it turned out though, I didn't need them. I did wish I stopped to pee at the aforementioned porta-potties on the way back though.
My HR monitor has been working pretty good since I stopped using the rogue gel I bought at the pharmacy in Bristol. A few spikes here and there, but nothing like before. I think the spikes will go away completely when I get some better gel.
Well that's about it for now. Did you make it down this far? I pontificated a little bit, but this wouldn't be nearly as interesting (for me or for you) if it was all business! Tomorrow is a much needed rest day!
Edinburgh Marathon Training Session 66
Edinburgh Marathon Training Session 68
Edinburgh Marathon Training Session 69
About Me
- plbennett70
- Training for the Chester Marathon on 09 October 2011. Going for a BQ!
Patrick,
ReplyDeleteI think the 15 mile point was a bonk - if you didn't take in any water or fuel. May not have been hot, but if it was low humidity, then you probably lost more fluid than you think. I haven't parted with my camelbak yet and take it with me on runs/races. I know that it weighs 5 pounds at the start, but I'm afraid of taking in an untested drink and having gastro problems.
I pasted some guidelines below with the link for reference.
Bill
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http://freedomsrun.org/Training/TrainingFuel.aspx
Many proceed in their long exercise efforts feeling the accomplishment is in the survival. They carry no fuel and take a little water and hope to find a fountain or gas station. Here are a few guidelines to start and adapt from. If you are running efficiently in the aerobic zone your gut can digest some calories. Run too fast and it cannot. If your event or activity is greater than 1 to 1.5 hours, an equivalent of 2 Powergels an hour with water is good to keep the blood glucose tank topped off. The body can absorb about 240 calories an hour on the run. Fluid management is a bit more individual and complex. Recently we were told “Do not wait till you are thirsty…drink early and often”. Most did fine with this advice but an unfortunate few took it too the extreme and met grave results from hyponatremia (water intoxication). See recent revised fluid guideline for explanation of hyponatremia and how better to tailor your fluid needs (see link) Proper electrolyte drinks, Powergels (fortified with electrolytes), or salt tablets can help you avoid this. Powergels have evolved in their formulation to include electrolytes and they also make a great endurance drink. Familiar gels eliminate a lot of uncertainty for events as you can carry these and take them with readily available water instead of relying on unfamiliar drinks, or having to carry large volumes of your special drink. Michael Wardian and I both applied the gel strategy at the 2007 JFK 50 Mile (largest and oldest Ultra in the US). 2 gels an hour and water propelled Mike to the win in near course record time. I managed 16th and repeated the strategy for an 11th place finish in 2008, cutting 12 minutes of my time, and 20th place in 2009.