(Over)Confidence 101
This is a bit belated, but Saturday was another long run. Instead of trying to squeeze in a run before driving for anywhere from 3-7 hours (the current low and high records for our house to my in-laws), I decided to do some trail running once we got there.
Long running story made short - I told my wife to pick me up after 3 hours and 30 minutes. The total time (by my watch) wound up being 3:49, and the g-maps pedometer puts it as being about 24 miles. I was doing well for the first three hours, but then several things all happened at once: I hit The Wall, and I ran out of water. Oh yeah - I wasn't doing my normal long run routine of running for nine minutes, walking for a minute. Instead, I was running all the time, except for the breaks every 45 minutes or so to take a Gu.
I had (with some effort) managed to refill my water supply when I turned around just after 1:45, but it didn't last. About 3:10, I was out of water, and couldn't maintain my constant running. Instead of being back at the rendevous on time (actually, I was looking at the possibility of being there a bit early), I would up losing almost 11 minutes on the return leg. Still, I was feeling better as I approached the finish line - I was only able to keep running for 5-6 minutes at a time, and had to walk for 2, but the runs were getting better, and I was able to run almost all of the last mile.
I think what really got me here was the water issue. On a race, it's not going to be a problem, but I was only carrying 14 oz or so, and didn't really manage to refill them properly. If conditions are similar (but with available water) on race day, I am feeling very confident of the outcome.
Heck, I am feeling confident now. Barring a training accident or some sort of mishap on the course, I am sure that I can achieve my stated goal of showing up, sans injury, and just finishing the race. I'm not so sure on my "ultra-happy, super-great" secret time goal, but it might happen. I've still got three weeks to continue training - though the taper has officially begun.
Long running story made short - I told my wife to pick me up after 3 hours and 30 minutes. The total time (by my watch) wound up being 3:49, and the g-maps pedometer puts it as being about 24 miles. I was doing well for the first three hours, but then several things all happened at once: I hit The Wall, and I ran out of water. Oh yeah - I wasn't doing my normal long run routine of running for nine minutes, walking for a minute. Instead, I was running all the time, except for the breaks every 45 minutes or so to take a Gu.
I had (with some effort) managed to refill my water supply when I turned around just after 1:45, but it didn't last. About 3:10, I was out of water, and couldn't maintain my constant running. Instead of being back at the rendevous on time (actually, I was looking at the possibility of being there a bit early), I would up losing almost 11 minutes on the return leg. Still, I was feeling better as I approached the finish line - I was only able to keep running for 5-6 minutes at a time, and had to walk for 2, but the runs were getting better, and I was able to run almost all of the last mile.
I think what really got me here was the water issue. On a race, it's not going to be a problem, but I was only carrying 14 oz or so, and didn't really manage to refill them properly. If conditions are similar (but with available water) on race day, I am feeling very confident of the outcome.
Heck, I am feeling confident now. Barring a training accident or some sort of mishap on the course, I am sure that I can achieve my stated goal of showing up, sans injury, and just finishing the race. I'm not so sure on my "ultra-happy, super-great" secret time goal, but it might happen. I've still got three weeks to continue training - though the taper has officially begun.
posted by Garou at 7:37 PM
1 Comments:
Awesome job on the long run!!!
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