17 miles: Closer To The End Than To The Beginning
friends, and I kayaked along side of them. It was a gorgeous morning and great seeing so many friendly faces at Medina Beach with all of the mates there....
Of the 6 runs I have done since the Lake Stevens Half, I would say that only one run wasn’t in the good category. My 2 recovery runs, which help get things moving after long or race-day efforts, have been excellent. They are somewhat relaxing and I generally don’t even wear my Garmin on those runs. It’s really about running how I feel, as long as it’s not moderate/hard. On one of them, a neighbor and teammate of mine spotted me at Green Lake and we chatted about his upcoming full Ironman that he was doing in Penticton, which he ended up rocking. Go John S.! Also HUGE congrats to my mates from TN Multisports who all did awesome at Ironman BC!
My 1st tempo run post-Lake Stevens was on a day when it was probably in the high 70s. I passed by a fellow 85 Broads member, who is also running NYC – wacky because I literally just found out the day before she was running NYC, and worked on pacing. The strides part of the workout wasn’t as strong as I would have liked, but I was really pleased to have hit the paces that were laid out for me, especially given the sunshine and relative warmth (I live in Seattle, remember?). I had to run 4 1-mile intervals at a 7:30-7:45 min/mile pace with some light recovery running in between. The legs held up well after hitting Crossfit, so that was another bonus.
The “not-so’-good” run was completed a week after the half marathon and it ended up being pretty warm
It wasn’t a bad run by any stretch, but I ended up consuming a full extra bottle of liquid that morning than when I had run 14 miles two weeks earlier so clearly hydration was a factor. I was glad to have finished and happy that I was smart enough to walk the last mile home. Fortunately Marc had made Belgian waffles for our houseguests (and great friends) who joined us for a dinner party the previous night on a houseboat on Lake Union. While I tend to stay away from the waffles, etc., it was hard to resist after he put in so much effort. :-)
The tempo run last week felt great and it was 80 degrees. Again, the tempo runs are all about hitting specific paces and I came back from that run feeling really positive about my times, the distance (9 miles!), how I felt post-run, etc. Coach Kim was really happy too.
Then it was time to map out a route for my long run on Saturday, which was going to be a new high. I worked it out with Tricia, who is nursing a broken toe, to run along Lake Washington Blvd. and around Seward Park, starting from Madison Park. She figured it was around 16 ½ - 17 miles, so I said I wanted to go for 17 miles. Since she can’t run with a broken toe, she kept pace along side of me in the Vespa. It was quite the sight, but come to think of it, it was probably one of the few times that we were at eye level (Tricia is a foot taller than me).
I was a bit slow out of the gate and I am starting to realize that I need to figure out how to get calories in my system for long runs in the morning on the weekends without getting up at 4:30am. If I eat solid food too close to a run, then that could be problematic so I need to get creative. I have a way of taking in calories during the run, so I may need to start drinking a full bottle of that stuff as soon as I get up. I could run later in the day but summer has finally arrived and it doesn’t make as much sense to run when it is 80 degrees since my race will most likely not be in those temps (knock wood please). Plus it impacts our entire day. So the pre-run fueling effort is now my #1 area of focus to work on.
The temps were in the high 60s when I started, so not cool. I settled down and once I got to Seward, it was nice…. Tricia was great company. We talked about the usual stuff. It worked out that Tricia had the Vespa because I was able to keep an extra bottle of liquid with her, which I ended up using on the run. Definitely going to have to keep extra bottles on stand-by during these runs as they increase.
As I hit mile 14, I was starting to feel it. Definitely was less chatty. Tricia stayed with me and kept my spirits up. I thought about a friend who is going through an incredibly tough time and thought that I definitely have it easy so stop it and get on with it. Mile 15 sucked and I was definitely not in a happy place, although I knew this was new territory for me in terms of mileage so I tried to focus on that. Tricia guided me until we hit mile 17 and then I was happy to walk for a bit. I was pretty spent by the end of the workout.
But hey – I ran 17 miles in 2 hours and 30 minutes. That is a new high for me in one run, and that is something to be celebrated. While more work is to be done, I am so thankful to the people who have been so supportive along the way. The amount of folks who have offered to ride along side of me or run with me for part of my long runs is beyond humbling.