Week 10: Fifteen miles

30:30 second run/walk ratio
4:12:25 hours
15.52 miles
16.3 minutes/mile

Meh. Not a great run, but not a terrible one, either. I got started a bit late because I didn't sleep well last night. Had a cup of coffee and a mug of soy milk, but nothing else to eat before getting started at 11:10 AM. I didn't want to upset my stomach by eating solid food before my run, but I still had to stop to use the bathroom at around 6 miles (I think). Felt okay after that, but lost some time there.

The weather was pleasant but a bit hot — around 66 F, but not a cloud in the sky, and the sun was beating down pretty hard when the breeze wasn't blowing.

I ate 3 GU at 4, 8, and 12 miles and drank my water but still started to fade by 11 or 12 miles. I decided to keep running as well as I could until I reached 13.1 miles so I could time myself on  a half marathon, and then I'd let myself slow down as much as I wanted to. I hit 13.1 miles at 3:35:20, but I think that time included the 3-minute warmup walk, so 13.1 miles would have been more like 3:32. Then there was the bathroom stop, which took at least two minutes, so if I don't count that, I've got a 3:30 half marathon time. Still right on the line, but disappointed that I couldn't do better.

I ended up walking most of mile 14, which was the uphill direction of the upper loop, but once I turned around and was going downhill, I started to catch my breath and ran my intervals the rest of the way. I feel like I slowed down quite a bit over the last three miles or so. I didn't time them so I don't know for sure, but I was exhausted and having a hard time finishing.

I've been checking my blood pressure twice a day for this past week or so because I know my blood pressure tends to get really low sometimes and it makes me feel tired and weak, and I wanted to track it so I can show my doctor when I see her next week. It occurred to me that maybe it's not entirely the heat or my blood sugar that's been making me lose steam at the end of my long runs, maybe it's my blood pressure crashing. This morning before my run, my blood pressure was 107/64 — low-ish, but pretty normal for me, and I was feeling good. When I got home, I was staggering around feeling light-headed and my blood pressure was 73/42. Erm. That's not good. Maybe I need to be drinking some kind of electrolytes during a run, as well as eating GU. And/or maybe eating more GU — they recommend one every 45 minutes, but I've been using them about one every hour. Sigh. Maybe I've finally figured out what's been going on when I lose my energy after around ten miles, but I still don't know why or what to do about it. And the next half marathon is only two weeks away.