May 25th, 2009 – Half Marathon Training Long Run

Today is Memorial Day and yet I’m still running.  I knew I would have times where this new regimen and my life would clash, but I also knew that after 5 days of running in a row, I could not easily handle doing it again this week.  I have firmly held, though, that there will be no strength training of any sort on the long run day.  I just beat myself up too badly to try to tackle both.

I decided this time to add just a quarter mile of cool down to the run.  I need some amount of time to ramp down after a run this size, but I did deliberately ignore the warm up.  I don’t know what that’s going to mean for my injury risk, but we’ll have to see.

Once again, my body really surprised me.  I never even approached zone 4 or anaerobic threshold for this run, and I didn’t have to make any adjustments to the slope or the pace.  The first run, I had to lower the incline to eventually flat and had to slow down to below the pace average to keep my heart rate down and it still wouldn’t get out of zone 4.  This run, I was close, but it really stayed below even 170.  I just don’t understand what the difference really is and each of these runs has amazed me.  I’m completing the distance above pace as well, which means that I’m probably doing myself more to make my goal than the goal the regimen promises.  That is motivating as well.

Housekeeping:  10.25 miles in 1:29:41 for a pace of 8:42 per mile.  Of course, the last quarter mile I walked at a 15:00 per mile pace, so it drug the average down, but my target was 8:46 anyway so I still managed to beat it with a quarter mile of walking!  1169 total calories burned.  That gives me an indication that at some point in the very near future, I’m going to have to adjust my diet.  I haven’t tried to cut any of the weight I took on after vacation, instead focusing on getting the fat percentage back down and building up more lean muscle mass.  But, if my base metabolic rate is 2043 calories, with activity at 2656, adding a 1100 calorie average workout will mean I should be eating 3700 calories on long run days and I’m not close just yet.  Just something to have to keep an eye on really.

I am looking forward to the day of rest.  I have to do speed work this week, and since I’ve never done it before, I don’t know what to expect.  I do know the pace is faster than I’ve run long distances to this point, but slower than I’d run during some of my cardiac training.  Just something to look forward to!

Cheers!