9/13 Long Run

I know I've asked myself this before, but when am I supposed to consider a run a "long run". :) I don't have the energy to dig through my archives and see what I said last time. I'm going to say this one was. :) Not at 3 hours yet, but it was a lot of work.

Out on the road at around 6:15. I thought the temp was a little cool, and confirmed that when I passed the billboard at the church declaring it was 50 degrees at mile 1. It was 64 ~2:20 later, on the way back in. (The temp for the day maxed out at 84 that I saw, glad I ran early. :))

Ran this unfueled again, and it went much better than last week, even with the longer distance. I think I was probably towards then end of my reserves at around 16 or so, but was able to push on through it. Don't know if I'll go much further unfueled. I think I've proved to myself that I can do it, and established a sane distance for it. I need to work on fueling at the new pace too. I had no interest in GUs and water consumption was a challenge again. My stomach just didn't really 'feel' it.

Really felt the last few miles in my larger muscle groups, quads, hamstrings, glutes, and especially my core. I'm glad I've started the "Planks at Work" program. I think it will help. Skipped doing them on Monday since I was still sore from the run. Really had to push through to keep the paces up for these last few miles.

Val brought up the idea of BCAAs for aid in recovery again. Need to reexplore that. I vaguely remember that there was some thought that it should help endurance athletes, just like it does weightlifters. More research required. Again. :)

How long is normal for a horses tail? I passed a horse property, and one of the horses had the longest tails I think I've ever seen. (Not that I've seen a lot.) All the way down to its 'calves' (whatever the correct term is...). Well groomed, but long.

What is it with kids and fashion these days? Saw a girl crossing the street, in 84 degree weather. In short-shorts and flip-flops. And a sweatshirt. Zipped up. WTF?

Interestingly the heartrates for this run were clustered in 3 very distinct ranges that I don't think correlate exactly to paces. I noticed a similar behavior on Saturdays run. The fact that the first 5 miles averaged 143 bpm @ 9:16/mile is amazing. I couldn't have come close to that pace a few weeks ago at that HR. It's probably a good thing that I've increased the intensity a little, I think it's encouraging some improvements. My best pace at that HR range when running <=143bpm was something like 9:45/mile.

HR/paces
miles 1-5:9:16 @ 143
miles 6-13: 9:12 @ 152
miles 14-17: 9:05 @ 159

17.34 in 2:39:07 (9:10/mile) @ 151 bpm avg