Positives
* I don't appear to have any actual injuries; I'm sore following today's run, of course, but that's just going to happen. I still have shin splints, I think, but I didn't notice them while running today, so that's good.
* Today I ran 14 miles, more than a half marathon.
Negatives
* 14 miles is, to date, the longest I've run - and let's be real, I didn't come anywhere close to running the whole thing.
For that matter, I was supposed to do 15 miles and it just wasn't happening. I was doing all right through the first... ten, maybe? But over the last few miles I hit a massive wall, and then the wall fell on me, and then the entire building collapsed. I brought more food than usual so I don't know if it's attributable just to that - although I've been home about an hour and I am starving - or if it's just a matter of my muscles being like "Yeah, we think you've used us enough today." My quads started actively cramping a bit around mile 11, and I walked most of the last four miles, including absolutely all of the last two. I tried a few times to break into a light jog, but my legs weren't having it; over the last mile I couldn't even really walk faster.
So I finished 14 miles in 3:56. That's... okay, I guess. Over 26.2 miles that comes out to around 7:25, which isn't great but at least puts me ahead of that 100-year-old guy. All told it breaks down to almost 17 minutes a mile.
But here's the thing. That's obviously an average. And if I hit a massive wall during the actual marathon, to the point where I simply cannot do anything but walk, it is entirely likely that I will do much worse than even that.
Here were my mile times for today:
Mile 1: 13:21
Mile 2: 17:29
Mile 3: 15:34
Mile 4: 14:21
Mile 5: 16:44
Mile 6: 14:52
Mile 7: 15:17
Mile 8: 14:29
Mile 9: 14:09
Mile 10: 16:41
Mile 11: 18:32
Mile 12: 20:31
Mile 13: 22:37
Mile 14: 21:21
We're told to keep the clock running during things like bathroom stops, which accounts for some of the higher earlier totals (I definitely stopped during miles 2, 3, and 5). Factoring out the bathroom, I was pretty well on my training pace - around 14:30 - until the last few miles. But if during the actual marathon I get to a point where the absolute best I could possibly do is 20 minutes a mile, and I still have twelve miles to go at that point... then we're looking at eight hours, best case. That's assuming I could even walk twelve more miles; I barely got through the last two today.
There's still some time, of course, but I need a better showing at the final pre-marathon long run in three weeks. I'm scheduled to do 18 that day; if I can manage to strengthen my legs in the next couple of weeks, maybe it'll happen. I mean, I can probably finish 18 if I had to. But I'd sure like to get as close as possible to that number without reaching a point where I can barely even walk the rest of the distance. Dragging myself over a full third of the marathon course in 80-degree temperatures is not going to be my idea of a good time come December 11.
No comments:
Post a Comment