I probably wasted too much energy on yesterday’s 5 miler – today’s “long” run (actually, 14 miles isn’t really that long when I think of the marathon I’ll be running in 9 weeks time) was quite a tough effort and I needed to dig deep and gut it out.
Some time in the middle of last night I woke with a huge cramp in my right calf, which despite several minutes of stretching before I went back to sleep, was still stiff and sore as I set off on my run. The weather was colder than yesterday – 48°F – and the wind was more from the north, making it feel even cooler than the 48°F suggests, but still warm enough for shorts and 2 layers on top.
I wore my Garmin GPS, but tucked it under one of my long sleeves – I wasn’t really interested in pace, speed or heart rate; just in completing the 14 miles and getting home into a nice hot bath. I guess you can tell that I wasn’t totally “up for” today’s run 🙂
I won’t bore you with all the details (you can click on the MotionBased map above for that), but looking back it was a fairly even paced run. The first 7 were all into the wind – either directly in my face or a deceptive cross wind – and I managed to maintain around a 7 minutes 30 seconds per mile pace. With a slight tail wind I unintentionally picked up the pace (apart from a stop in the bushes at mile 9!) and average around 7 minutes 12 seconds per mile.
Despite feeling sluggish, my average heart rate was just 148 beats per minute, which is a great fat burning zone for me. Hopefully it well help in my quest to drop a few more pounds.
The 14 miles today bumped my weekly mileage to the grand total of 38.1 miles – a 10% increase on the 35.6 from last week. Textbook stuff which should help keep the injuries at bay. I’m sure the modest amount of cross training is helping my general fitness level too.
Time to move on from today’s run and focus on a new week with new challenges. Also time for a hot bath….
PS No song references in my blog post today. I decided to leave the headphones at home and focus totally on my run. After all, I won’t be wearing an iPod during the marathon, so I don’t want to get used to running my long runs with music either.
I can’t tell you how jealous I am about that Motion Based mapping tool you use with your garmin! I can’t WAIT to pick one of these up!
Great run today despite overdoing the day before. It also looks like you’ve added some new pics at the top of your blog?
Well spotted Bill! Just decided to add a bit of a “personal touch” to the banner area. These are some of my favorite pics from some of my better races.
Let me know if you need any help with MotionBased (when you’re ready)
Have a great week!
–Steve