Week 1: Five Miles

20:40 sec run/walk ratio
1:19:53 hours
5.40 miles
14.8 minutes/per mile

Now, that was a good run! Temperature was around 59 F when I started out, 64 F when I finished. Nice and cool. I drank a protein drink (8 oz soy milk, 4 oz coconut water, scoop of protein powder, spoonful of cocoa, drizzle of agave nectar) in the truck on my way to the park, didn't bring any other water or GU with me, since I'd only be running five miles. Felt really good and strong the whole way and kept up a good pace. Only problem was digestive wonkiness, which is annoying because I got up at 7 AM and left for the park a little after 9 AM, so I had plenty of time to get my digestion moving before I left. But it still went wonky on me. My last two miles were pretty much "I'd better turn around and head for the bathroom... no, I'm ok I'll just keep going... no, I need a bathroom now... well, I'm a mile away from the bathroom so I'll just have to wait..." Kept going anyway. Actually, I was probably faster on my last mile because I was in such a hurry to get back to the parking lot & bathroom, heh.

One good thing about doing so poorly in Long Beach is that I'm that much more eager to get out there and do another one and do better this time! So I've decided my next race will be the Surf City Half Marathon on February 7. The time limit for the half marathon is about 5 hours, so I'll certainly be able to finish. It will be nice and cool in February in Huntington Beach, it's convenient to drive to, and three and a half months will allow me to train up in good time while still allowing for occasional breaks for the weather. In fact, I've decided that, since I'm already trained up for a half marathon, I'll go ahead and continue training as if I'm going to do a full marathon. For several reasons: for one, I do want to know how fast I can reasonably expect to do a marathon, in case I want to try one that has, say, a 7-hour time limit. Also, it will be more fun than just doing a 10- to 15-mile run every other week to keep myself trained up for the half, not to mention that my half marathon time will be that much better if my longest training run is a full 26 miles. But if the winter weather intervenes and I skip some long runs and end up only getting up to 20 or 23 miles, no big, I'm still only doing a half marathon.

Surf City is also part of the Beach Cities Challenge, which also includes Long Beach and the OC Marathon on May 1. So if Surf City goes well, I'll have my next half marathon already chosen. OC has a 3.5 hour time limit for the half marathon, but that's certainly doable as long as I keep up my training and don't make any big mistakes during the race.

One thing I want to do for the next race is try some different foods. I do think that my problem with running out of steam in Long Beach and my 23-mile training run in Monterey is as much due to low blood sugar as anything else, from eating energy gels early and nothing later. They do warn that once you start using energy gels you have to keep using them throughout the race, or your blood sugar will crash, because they're pretty much pure sugar -- they give you a quick boost, but wear off just as quickly. So I either need to schedule and make sure I eat my GU at regular intervals, no matter if I'm not hungry or my stomach is wonky or whatever, or switch to something that will have less of a rollercoaster effect on my blood sugar, so it won't be such a big letdown if I forget or skip a food break. Maybe crackers or pretzels or a banana-peanut butter sandwich or something like that. I will start experimenting on my next long runs.

I didn't use to have this problem when I was running before, but I'm older now and I suppose things change. I don't think I've been taking food seriously enough during my training for Long Beach, and it really messed me up. This time I will give it more consideration.