Week 6: Eleven miles

30:30 second run/walk ratio
2:57:20 hours
11.45 miles
15.5 minutes/mile

Good run today!

It's been kind of a messed up week. First, I was very sick on Sunday with what I think was a migraine -- vile headache, vomiting and diarrhea. I felt better on Monday, but still wrung out and headachey, and queasy whenever I tried to eat anything. So I didn't do my short run on Monday, and I got too busy on Tuesday and didn't do it then, either. Finally got my Day 1 run done on Wednesday, and decided to just skip the Day 2 run, because I didn't want to do it on Thursday (wanted to rest a day between runs) or Friday (would have had to do my long run on Sunday, and then next week would end up having to do a short run on Tuesday again, which is always a busy day and hard to find time to run).

But then I ended up doing my long run on Sunday anyway, because I bought an 1100-lb bag of gravel on Friday and spent the afternoon digging a 4'x8' foundation for a shed and filling it with gravel, and I was so tired after that I decided to take Saturday off to rest up.

In any case, I got my 11-mile run done, and it went really well. I got started a little before noon, after having a cup of hot chocolate and a protein drink for breakfast and lunch. It was around 60 F, and I wore long leggings and a long-sleeved tee-shirt, which was plenty warm. Could have gotten by with a short-sleeved tee in the sun, but the long sleeves were nice when the wind came up. I brought three GU with me but only ate two of them, at 4 and about 7 miles.

I think the speed work is really helping. It makes me concentrate on keeping a short, steady stride, which really seems to conserve energy so I can keep up my pace throughout my run, and also those half-mile intervals make it easier to keep up a 30-second interval!

I thought about bringing my watch along to time splits, but decided these mileage-increasing runs are about distance, not speed, so it would be better not to worry about it. But I did check my time at the half-way point, and I had gone for about 1:26:30. Total time was 2:57:20, so I did slow down some in the last half, maybe by :45 per mile. More than I'd like, but not too bad, really. I always expect to slow down over the last two miles, when I'm increasing my mileage over my last long run. Overall pace was 15.5 minute miles, which would make a 3:23 half marathon if I could keep it up for just two more miles. I didn't feel like I was getting tired in the last half, but my hamstring started to bother me a bit in the last mile. I hope that's not going to be a problem. I can't seem to get it to go away, although I haven't felt that it's really slowing me down. Usually once I get going, it doesn't bother me at all, so I'm a little concerned that it was bothering me at the end today, but I'll just have to see how it goes.