Sunday, June 19, 2011

First Long Run

So today was the first long slow run of my training.  It was a six mile run, which is about one mile more than I have run in three months (and I've only run 5 miles once or so in the last three months...).  Needless to say, I was feeling a bit nervous about the run.  My stomach was actually a little bit nervy before I went out.  It was a bit odd.  I worked last night and slept from about 8-11, then ate an english muffin with pb&j, then went back to sleep from about 2:30-6.  When I woke up I had a bagel thin.  My plan was to run after the sun was starting to get lower in the sky, because I knew today would be a hot day.  So I went out at about 7 and it was somewhere around 78 degrees and sunny.  My goal was to really stick to a slow pace, as prescribed by my training program.  This has been a challenge for me in the past.  Last night I spent some  time on runnersworld.com playing around with their training calculator to determine what my lsd pace should be.  Based on a marathon time of 4:15 (9:44 min/mil), my lsd pace should be 10:52-12:13.  Today, my pace was 10:45.  While a bit faster than I would have liked, it felt very comfortable and I am proud that I was able to maintain a pace slower than what I am used to.  Typically, I start to run and I just settle into my "normal" pace, when I try to run at a set pace I have a really hard time with it.  So I'm really happy with today's run.  I felt good during the run, my feet were a bit uncomfortable but no other complaints.  Oh, I did have some issues with cramps in my chest/shoulder area, tried to breathe through and it seemed to work.  Finished the run with a  severe side stitch that almost had me doubled over, walked it out and it went away.  Walked Cooper after and drank a good amount of water.
The first week of training is behind me and I feel great.  My countdown till the race is a bit off, but I think I'm 119 days out!!

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