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If you’ve followed my blog for very long, you know that my perfectly planned out training schedule got tossed to the side when I got shin splints in February. I’ve slowed eased my way back into running, and have only run 2 days a week. However, I managed to continue doing cardio a number of times a week while injured, which has allowed me to jump back in fairly easily!
I’ve decided that my plan for the half marathon (2 more weeks! eek!) will be to do a mixture of walking and running. As you know, I’ve been a big walker for a few years, and do a number of 4-7 mile walks a week with no problem. I want to try to avoid re-injuring myself, and I’m fearful that if I actually run all 13 miles straight with the longest training run being 6 miles, I will burn out or injure myself. So, walk/run it will be!
Today I set out for my last longer run before the 1/2 on May 5th, a 10 miler. Now, I don’t think I could’ve run the entire thing, nor would I have wanted to because of the time I took off. However, I decided that I could do it in a run/walk fashion, which I felt would be great preparation for the race. I wore a long sleeve Nike shirt and my running skirt, as well as a compression sleeve on my left leg. The temperature was between 41-45, which was pretty perfect, and I never felt overheated.
I took off slowly, making sure to take walk breaks every 5-6 minutes (not because I felt like I needed to, but I didn’t want to push myself too hard and re-injure myself). At the 1 hour mark I stopped by a place with a drinking fountain, and downed the first gel I’ve ever consumed in my life: a vanilla PowerBar gel. It tasted like frosting, but I still felt a little like I needed to gag it down. The water helped tremendously though, and I put it away quickly. I felt re-energized and finished up my run easily. I also ate half a packet of sports beans at the 1:45 mark.
All sorts of fun flavors in my fuel today!
Overall, I felt fantastic and really wanted to keep running, but cut myself off at 10. I easily could’ve gone another 3.1 to finish the half marathon today, and I’m hoping that I feel just as energized and strong on race day. I also felt like I could’ve run more than I did, but I continually forced myself down to a speed walk. I’m sure this will be a challenge on race day.
Apparently mile 8 was a little rough?
My average pace per mile was 13:07, and I will be very happy if I can do my half at that pace. I’m actually really happy about these mile times considering that I walked a fair amount in each mile. My run this morning was really fantastic, and I maybe had the most fun I’ve ever had on a run today!
Now it’s your turn to share! What’s your favorite way to fuel on a run? Do you ever do run/walks?
I’m jealous of your will power. I don’t think I could hold back if I was feeling good even though I know that’s the smart thing to do
It was REALLY tough. I’m actually still a little annoyed that I stopped, even though it was the right thing. I’m hoping that the anticipation will continue to build, and I’ll be good and ready to get out there and do it again in 2 weeks:)