The Long (Long) Run

Well, I woke up this morning highly aware that D has been kicking my ass in training lately. (I've been sick, but my pride didn't catch anything, and hasn't been resting like the rest of me). Anyway, she's been a total inspiration and I decided today I needed to get on my running, which is definitely the weak link in my tri performance. I'm a solid 30-minute 5K girl, and my aversion to running hasn't done much to improve that time. So I decided to do a nice long run today. I was thinking of running from my daughters school to the gym (just shy of 4 miles), doing the crossfit WOD and running back.

So I checked in at the Crossfit Main Site and what could the WOD be? Oh, a nice easy 15K run. Uh, yeah, that's just shy of 9.5 miles, and about 4 miles longer than anything I've done before. But I decide this fairly unusual WOD is a sign from the fitness gods that I need a good, solid, self-inflicted ass whuppin'. So I drop my kiddo off at school, leave my car at her school (I know I have to be back to pick her up in three hours, and being carless basically guarantees that I will finish the miles, taxi's being few and far between in my town) and head out.

Before I left to drop my daughter off, I'd jotted off a quick route on mapmyrun.com that came in at 10 miles/16.1 K. I couldn't figure out a clean way to shave 1 K off the map, and needed to get going, so I took a long look at the map (didn't print it) and went with what I had.

The first 2 miles felt good. I was really working on my Pose running technique, and during a few of the earlier, gentle downhills I really connected with what it should feel like (feet just moving up and down; no particular work to make forward momentum happen). I kept consciously engaging my transversus abdominis and rolling my shoulders back and down. When I did this I felt like it was a lot easier to get a proper lean from the ankle, which felt like a leading with the chest more than a lean, but certainly made it easier to keep momentum going and foot striking under my center of gravity.

At around mile 1 I started making a plan for walking breaks. I planned on a one minute walk break for every 10 minutes of running, and kept this going for more or less the first 4 miles. At mile five, the walk breaks became more frequent, but I was back in more familiar territory. I had the Gu I brought, which seemed to help, but my renewed pep was thwarted when a very cute, small white dog started following me.

The dog was clearly well taken care of, but a quick glance at his collar revealed him to be about 5 blocks from home. Well, maybe I was just looking for an excuse to take a break, but the next 25 minutes was me wandering around this neighborhood, 20# dog in arms, looking for his house. After a consult with a neighbor, I was eventually pointed to the the right house, and returned the dog back to his not-quite-as-grateful-as-I-hoped neighbor. This caused me to change my route slightly, but after a 25 minute rest (walking up and down hills holding a dog was my rest) I was back on target, and quickly reconnected with my planned route.

Mile 6 was a flat chunk of road I run fairly regularly, so it felt really good, but mile 7 turned straight vertical and stayed that way for about 1.5 miles. I got a brief flat reprieve at around mile 8.5, but by mile 9 the hills were back. The last couple miles were a total mix: on the bad side, lots of breaks that happened because my body just...stopped...for...a...minute, and an unexpected hill at the end that made me curse quite loudly and fight back a tear, but I plodded up it in slo-mo. On the good side, I told myself to finish strong and I did, kicking it up to a respectable clip for the last .5 mile.

So I finished. My clock time was 2:33, which is approximately an hour longer than I'd like, but when you factor out the 25 minute dog return and factor in that I ended up doing 11.38 miles (18.31 K), I figure my actual run time is closer to 130 minute, or about 11.5 minutes per mile. By the way, how did I end up putting in that extra 3K, you might wonder? Well, I made an unplanned turn early in my run when I felt all fresh and shit, and ended up connecting up with one of my cross streets further down the road than I'd planned. That added some distance, as did the adjustment I made to my route do to the doggy-go-round. So when I re-drew my route after I got home, I was shocked to discover I worked a bit harder than I needed to.

All things considered, I don't feel too bad for this one. I'm tired, but not dead, and I definitely think I did the right thing taking it slow with the pace. Those knee joints don't just grow on trees, ya know. And I really don't want a repeat of "Erica goes too hard and makes herself sick." More like, "Erica goes just hard enough to make herself a better runner." Now speed work will come with intervals! Ha! Get some, go again!