Yesterday my schedule had me running 6 miles after my spin class. The weather was perfect. After Friday’s lactate threshold test I was ready to run in my aerobic zone. I prepared a 3 mile loop that passed my house and I left water in my mailbox.
I also set my watch to keep me in my zone. The watch worked really well, I’ll post a review of it in another post. The watch will beep when you go over and under your zone, which allows you to slow down and speed up accordingly. The run was pretty uneventful, which is great, but let me just say, there are few things in life more frustrating than having to walk when you just want to run.
Because I am trying to stay in my zone, every time I hit a hill I was forced to walk in order to stay in my zone. I want to say I had to stop a dozen times or more as I ran over the mount everest of a route that I had set myself up for. I ended up with a 11:54 pace. Lots of room for improvement.
It was brutal, but I’ve been assured that this is the right way to train, grumble grumble, grumble. This route is going to be my training indicator in the months to come. My goal is to be ble to get through this run while still in my zone.
I made it through the run relatively unscathed. My shins hurt for the first three miles, but that eased for the back 3. Even though this is the longest I have ever run, I wasn’t tired and I felt I could go much longer.
The aftermath? Well, my feet were tired, very tired and sore. Even though I tried to run on the middle of my foot, my heels were sore, which means that I am probably heel striking more than I think I am. This morning my feet are ok, my shins seem fine, and the only pin I’m feeling is a slight sharp pain in my left knee when I go down stairs. This should pass soon. With my upcoming schedule, I probably won’t have time for my run today, but we’ll see.
So I now have nearly half of my half marathon (quarter marathon?) under my belt, and I feel very strong. Who knows, maybe I can do this thing.