Tuesday Long Run

Aren’t long runs supposed to be on the weekend?

My tennis partner had to postpone our game from this morning to the weekend. So we are set to play Saturday morning. That left Tuesday morning free to run. I put in 7.38 miles this morning at a pace of 11:15 per mile. Nothing blindingly fast, but my longest run since my half marathon.

I was disappointed with something I discovered today though. About 3 miles into the run I was just about wiped out. I decided to try and make it to the 3.5 mile mark where there was a store that I could buy a Coke at. I was feeling really wiped out. I had pretty much started working out an exit plan to make it back home without finishing the run. It would still have been over a 5 mile run just to get home from there.

I sat on the curb and listened to TWiT on my iPod and sucked on my Coke bottle. Because of the time change, the sun was up a bit higher and I know that was having an affect on me. After I finished my seven minute Coke break, I started running again. First came the burping for a block or so and then the energy boost. I had to run about a half mile just to get to where I could make the cutoff and go home. By the time I got there I decided to go on to a different cut off. Well, that continued until the fastest way back home was the way I had planned to run for the day. I got home and felt great.

So, why do I say I was disappointed? I have been haunted since my half marathon because of a deviation in my plan. I really did not run that well in the half and know I could have done better. The deviation was that I did not stop for a Coke during the half. My plan was to stop around 4.5 miles in and get a Coke. Since I have no gels or sports beans available, I had trained with Cokes to provide the energy boost I needed. But, I deviated from that plan during the race. Today confirmed to me that I would have done much better had I stopped for a Coke as planned. I did not think it would make that much difference on race day. But now I know it would have.

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