Let's start with rest the night before. Rosie worked a location job all week and she got home at 2am. That was bad enough, but she must have taken something to sleep because she started snoring and I had a difficult time waking her up so she could put on her CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) device. So much for a good night's sleep.
When I did the eight mile run last week I got a rash from my thighs rubbing. I don't have huge thighs but the shorts I've been using combined with my racewalking gait causes some friction right below my crotch--ouch! At about the eight mile mark I started hurting and I remembered that I brought along a tube of petroleum jelly, which was in the car--ugh. So, I stopped the chronograph on the Timex Ironman and did a slow recovery walk to my car at the half-way point. It was parked was several blocks away and had way too much of a cool down. By the time I started mile 11 I had a hard time getting my pace back.
Finally, just past the 11 mile mark I was feeling a pain in my right heel. I'll confess, I switched to a new pair of shoes, New Balance RC550WB's. I got them on Monday and used them during the week, they fit better then the New Balance 111's and didn't have any problems so I wore them for today's 20 mile walk--bad decision. I stopped to check out my heel and it was a bloody mess. I tried applying some petroleum jelly but it stung and that's when I stopped the workout. I didn't want to stop it, but there will be plenty of other long workouts--no point overdoing it today.
So I guess I learned a few lessons, which I should have known anyway, but maybe they will sink in this time.
The 11th mile is the last mile I kept track of, 13:28, but I'm going to throw it out because that was after stopping. Here's how I did on the other 10 miles:
Mile 1 - 12:38 Mile 6 - 11:56
Mile 2 - 13:04 Mile 7 - 12:02
Mile 3 - 13:14 Mile 8 - 12:49
Mile 4 - 11:55 Mile 9 - 12:32
Mile 5 - 12:51 Mile 10 - 12:07
Average Pace - 12:30 minutes per mile
Total Workout - 2:05:13
I was surprised that my pace was this good. I wasn't trying for a 12:30, I thought I'd be closer to 13:30. Since this was supposed to be a 20 mile walk I started out slow and kept checking the heart rate monitor trying to stay close to the 153 bpm easy distance effort. The Santa Monica Pier bridge crossing came up on mile 5 and it was much easier than last week because I was warmed up. My heart rate did go up to 168 bpm on the bridge, but I was able to recover quickly once over the crest.
Something new I tried was to drink only water for the first 4.5 miles and switched to Gaterade after crossing the bridge. This is a marathon tip from one of Dave McGovern's books to "trick" the body into burning fat instead of carbs as early in the workout as possible. Actually, Dave recommended water for the first 90 minutes, but I was doing a shorter workout. This is supposed avoid hitting the wall near the end of a long effort. I was feeling like I was burning out near the end of the 18 mile walk a couple of weeks ago, though I did manage to put in a 12:13 final mile. Maybe I'll try this again on the 22 mile walk in two weeks and see if it works for me.
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