This weekend was the long run I had to complete for the marathon I am planning on completing in June this year. This will be my first, but hopefully not last marathon.
If you drop by occasionally you will know I completed a long run last week of 14km. This ability to all of a sudden run these distances is a little bemusing to me. I guess it’s all attitude but for some reason I have been able to just run the distances required. No need for the usual stopping to walk for a bit.
Why? Buggered if I know … really! I have no clue as to why I can all of a sudden run 14km straight. But I’ll take it. 
Yesterday I needed to run 16km (or 10 miles). No problem. Get the gear on and off you go. But …
- I had just got in from Queensland the night before, hitting the sack after midnight. I think I deserved a lie in with the family so we did.
- Then it was too hot to run during the day.
- Then it was the annual tomato sauce making day Sunday morning so, apart from running from our house to Mums (19k) it looked like the long run might be tight to do.
All these things transpire to keep us from doing what we now we should be doing, or really want to do. And I really wanted to complete the 16km run. After completing the 14k run last week I really wanted to do this and do it well, not just start and have some feeble excuse as to why I couldn’t complete it.
I decided to run Saturday night, after the AFL and watching Carlton demolish Sydney Swans – which didn’t happen for those of you who are interested. In fact, I am now very concerned about Carlton’s ability to kick a winning socvree afettt hat debacle last night.
Anyway … back to the run!
The game finished at 7pm and thought well, it’s definitely cool enough to run so I headed out. I had mapped the run on MayMyRun so I knew where I had to go ahead of time, which I found a good idea.
The 14km run last week was pretty flat so I decided to take a route with some inclines and see how I fared. Not too bad in the end. I found running up the slopes I took on a good pace and posture and allowed the declines to work for me on my pace.
I also found I wasn’t scuffing my feet as much as I ran and at different times throughout the run felt pretty well okay.
There were probably 2 or 3 places where I thought I was running out of steam but these times passed by simply slowing down a bit without walking and soon I was back up to a reasonable pace. My slowest km being around 6.10/km.
Reading up on how to train I have read that once you are finished you should feel like you could have gone a little further, which is how I felt as I ran back into the driveway. So I figure my pace is about what it should be.
I still run with the Nike+ and Garmin. The Nike+ telling me how far I’ve gone and while it isn’t that accurate, it is good to hear the kms come off the distance, even though I know there is still more to do when it says “Time’s up!”
Next week’s long run is only 7miles or 11.25km. I am very much looking forward to that. This will be the first Taper run of the training program and I’m pretty happy that I have made it this far.
Nike+: 18.16km / 1hr:48min:20sec / 5:58/km
Garmin: 16.15km / 1:47:35 / 6.40/km
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Well done on creatively finding a time to run!
Great effort! I bet you are glad you did not flag it!
Good job on fitting the long run in. My Nike+ is usually pretty off too, but the other way where if I run 5k on my Garmin, the iPod would only register 4.8 or so.
Are you still in the World Runners League, with the new site and all? I’m on Team 3 this go around.
Way to go. I remember the first time I ran 10 miles. I was pretty flabby and was so surprised that I could go that far.
Hi Matt
Yes I am. I am Team 4. Unfortunately, my long run schedule falls outside of the time frames
I may try and re-calibrate the Nike+. 2km out is a bit unsettling …
Hey Frank. Mate I know the feeling. It’s good huh? To be able to do something you thought you had little to no chance on. Great work!
Hey, this week is Team 3 vs Team 4!
So I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but if you log a run and upload it by noon your time on Saturday, it should still count. The cut off is midnight Eastern US time and that is something like 1pm the next day your time.
Anyway, good luck this week. Or maybe my team is the one that needs the luck. Maybe Sunday is a good day for your long run.
Yes, I did know that. This week is just 11.25k so hardly a worry. Though I also need to do about that again, Wednesday and Thursday. So, put me down for 22km!
great experience, dude! thanks for this great post wow… it’s very wonderful report.