Sunday, June 29, 2008

Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon: 13 weeks to go

First 20 miler is in the books. This training cycle has, I believe, five runs of 20 miles or more. By the end of all of this, these are gonna feel quite normal. I ran today's course pretty much following the official course route for the waterfront marathon, including miles in the Spit.

Weather was absolutely ideal for this time of year. It wasn't too hot, overcast and it wasn't humid. It's been hotter earlier in the week so I was glad to get cooler climes.

There were a few issues I had to work with

-My fuel belt obviously doesn't hold enough Gatorade, only 3 bottles of 8 ounces. Not much carbs. I have to start carrying a bottle or start using gels.
-Found it hard to keep up a strong pace, maybe it's because I was running low on glycogen. I ended up being dehydrated but I did stop at various water fountains to replace Gatorade with water.

With three miles to go, rain started to fall. With about a mile to go, the skies opened up and it was pouring. I decided to duck under some cover for a few minutes to ride it out.

20 miles in 2:42:02, average pace of 8:06

Here are the mile splits
1. 8:29
2. 8:24
3. 8:19
4. 8:02
5. 8:09
6. 8:10
7. 8:06
8. 8:02
9. 8:02
10 8:04
11. 7:59
12. 7:58
13. 7:59
14. 7:54
15. 8:00
16. 8:00
17 7:45
18. 8:45 (took walk break)
19. 7:50
20. 7:39

I found my pace by the fourth mile. I felt really out of it for the first 4 miles and I distinctly remember finding my rhythm. It wasn't quite the runner's high, but close.

The week past:

Tuesday: 9 miles
Wednesday: 14 miles
Thursday: 5 miles
Friday: 12 miles
Saturday: 5 miles
Sunday: 20 miles

Weekly total: 65 miles (105K)
Year to date: 1129 miles (1817K)

A big running week last week and this past month has been my biggest running month with 250 miles in. This compares with 228 miles earlier this winter during Flying Pig training and 217 in the September of 2007 and 215 in August 2006. But it's a recovery week which is welcome since I'm scheduled to do my long run in steamy DC next weekend

Week ahead

Tuesday: 10K race (6.2 miles) with 3 to 5 extra miles
Wednesday: 9 or 12 miles
Thursday: 5 miles
Friday: 11 miles
Saturday: 5 miles
Sunday: 14 miles

3 comments:

Marky Mark said...

Well done! I've started with the gels and I think they agree with me more than Gatorade. I also like the Cliff shot cubed jelly type things that you chew on or suck-they do the same as the gels I'm told.

I also tried a Camelbak backpack today with a two litre reservoir. I actually found it a bit more comfortable than the fanny pack belt, but at some point my shoulders did start to bother me.

Arcane said...

Nice work on the long run. I'll be on the lookout for you tomorrow. If I don't see you, good luck!

Sonia said...

Wow already one 20 miler down!

Good luck tomorrow!