Last weekend I suffered from ‘hitting the wall’ when trying to get a 22 miler in .. but I succeeded this week by taking some advice from other runners out there, here is what I did:
1. Kept a decent long-run pace … I realized that in looking at my time two weeks ago (when I did 21 miles in 3:11 with water stops, and survived), and then looked at today (did 22 miles in 3:21 with water stops, and survived), last week I just went out too fast. I did 18 miles last week in 2:36 (plus I walked a bit as well) .. that means last week I was running an approximate 8:40/mile pace and the weeks I did well, i was over a 9 minute/mile pace. Pace is everything!
2. Kept myself hydrated … Even though it rained for the first part and last part of the run, I still needed water. I took my 24oz bottle, stopped for another 20 oz and then filled up my 24oz one more time along the way. At no point did I feel dehydrated, but again, the sun wasn’t out beating on me, not sure what difference that made.
3. Kept my fueled … I’m not sure I did too much more than normal, but took a second gel with me and used more than half of it in mile 18. This helped, so we have to keep doing this as well.
Thats really the secret to todays good run, it helped that i was fairly rested and wasn’t rushed to get out like last week as well, which is why I might have gone out too fast, I felt like I was behind for some reason.
One thing I noticed that i’m really surprised with is the lack of vending machines in the area of the Lehigh Valley that I live and run in. I either can’t find one, and when I do find one, they either DON’T have WATER .. or they have water and its SOLD OUT! Its really annoying. We’re talking both main roads through my area don’t have machines… ack!
So the best part of finishing off 22 miles today is that I probably could’ve kept running another 4-5 miles without any issue. I’m not sure why, but its built back my confidence in finishing the marathon in just 3 weeks times. I’m not convinced my time will be as good as last year, but the goal here is to finish under 4 hours .. if I PR, great, but I don’t expect to. Knowing that going in takes that burden off of having the ‘run fast’ and kill my pace…
We’ll wrap up tomorrow with another 14 miler before we slow it down a bit prior to the last week of real long running before the first fall marathon. My family and I are heading out of town next weekend, so i’m arranging to get my long run in on Thursday since i’m off from work instead of on Saturday .. which throws off my whole week somewhat, but its all about the long runs these days, so we have to get it in. I do have to watch my tendinitis in my legs and the number of miles i’m running … my tibilias anterior ligament that was bothering me and that I wrote about the other day didn’t bother me during my run today after being sore yesterday but is flaring up a little now that my long run is done .. I don’t think it will be a big issue in the long term, but we have to watch it as we start to wind down.
Lastly, I didn’t write about having to run in the rain yet again .. I kind of anticipated the rain based on the forecast, but it was certainly welcome .. usually rain scares people away from being outside, but I love a summer shower, and I even had some lightning also… nothing major, but enough to keep me alert..