The warm weather this week has been great and my runs have been feeling really good. This past week I ran three miles on Tuesday, and six on Wednesday. I was supposed to do three more on Thursday but my legs were a little tired and I had some pains in my knees. Knowing that I had a long run due yesterday and that I would be running an additional 5k today, I decided to use Thursday as a rest day and took a 1.5 mile walk instead. After resting Thursday and Friday my legs felt good on Saturday and I set out on the Hilliard Rails to Trails course to do 10.5 miles. As usual, the first three miles were somewhat uncomfortable but I was able to find my stride and ran a majority of the ten miles. My overall time was 1:48:38 which was a 10:20 pace. This is right in line with where I want to be for the full marathon. I also managed to run my first ever negative split at a distance over ten miles. My first half was 54:41 and the second was 53:57. While I still have work to do, my confidence is gaining and I am feeling better about my ability to finish the race.
Until last weekend all of my runs were short loops around my neighborhood which allowed me to circle by my house and pick up a water bottle as I passed by. Now that the mileage has started to pick up, I have located longer trails and paths but none of them have drinking fountains available. As a result, I will need to carry my fluids with me. Last week I tried to carry my water bottle in my hand the whole time and this didn't work so well for me. I found myself drinking faster just to avoid having to carry it any longer. This past week I did some research and talked to my local running store and decided to buy a hydration belt. I decided on a Nathan Triangle belt which comes with one 22oz. bottle and has a zippered pouch just big enough to store my keys and one gel pack. This is the model I chose - http://www.nathansports.com/our_products/hydration_nutrition/triangle.html I was nervous about how it would feel to have this bottle sitting on my spine for the length of the run and I was afraid the belt might start to rub and become uncomfortable. I was pleasantly surprised that neither became an issue. In fact, I hardly even noticed I had the belt on. I think this will come in handy as my runs get longer and longer.
Today I took part in the Arnold Classic 5k ( http://arnoldsportsfestival.com/pump-run/ ) which is a part of the Governator's annual sports festival that he puts on here in Columbus. It was a great time and there were over 1000 runners taking part in the three different run/walk events that were offered. I was planning to just go out and take it really easy and fully expected to walk at least part of the distance based on how my legs felt after yesterday. To my surprise, I felt really good and comfortably completed the run with a 9:08 pace which for me, is pretty good. My legs are definitely tired and a little sore this evening but I don't have any pain. I just feel like I have completed a good workout. The results from this week's runs are below:
Three mile - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/2332931
Six mile - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/2353074
Ten & a half mile - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/2399891
Arnold 5k - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/2433312
This coming week I will again continue to build on my miles and will add an additional 3.5 miles to my weekly total. On my schedule is a 3-7-4 with a rest on Friday and then 12 miles on Saturday. Hopefully I will continue to stay healthy and build on some more good miles.
-bgw
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