20 mile run - 7/12

It is kinda strange to think that the run in week 13 of a 29 week training program would already have one doing 20 miles. But, that is what the Galloway time goal schedule dictates. Just for the hell of it, I cross checked the 20 mile long run with the beginner schedule on coolrunning.com, and it occurs at week 11 of the 20 week program. Looking at the competitive schedule (the other end of the spectrum), it occurs at week 7 of the 20 week program.

So, it seems that there is some degree of precedence for getting the miles in rather early, so the latter portions of the training plan can focus a little more on speed work. It makes sense - get the conditioning in and the aerobic capacity before working on pushing back the lactate threshold.

Yesterday I went to Marathon Sports to pick up a Fuel Belt. Typically, I've brought a 24 oz water bottle (or two) with me on runs that require extra hydration. That suffices for 'shorter' long runs (15 miles or fewer), but I did find on my 17 mile run the other week that it just got kinda tiring having to hold the damn things for 3 hours. A few weeks ago I was talking to a friend of mine and he mentioned that he picked up a Fuel Belt and he really liked it. So I decided to join the bandwagon.

While I was at the register, the clerk asked me how my training was going. I told him it was going well, but the logistics around staying hydrated for a run that long can be a pain - and that I can only go around a loop around the house (where I can easily have additional fluids ready to go) so many times before it just becomes boring. He then gave me a couple packets of a new (to me) mix for a sports drink - Accelerade. I told him I use the Gatorade Endurance, and he said that many people like the Accelerade because it has more complex sugars (fructose), whereas the Gatorade still only has simple sugars (sucrose and dextrose). Ok, I'll give it a shot.

I started off todays run thinking pretty positively - the 17 mile run the other week was a tad smoother than I expected, so I was bouyed by the results of that run. Today would just be a matter of tacking on 3 additional miles - no major biggie. So I packed up the fuel belt with 24 oz of Gatorade and 24 oz of Accelerade - figuring I'd start with the Gatorade, go to the Accelerade, and then when I stop for water, I'd have to switch back to the Gatorade. But it would be enough to try out the new mix. I planned on two stops for water - one at ~8 miles, and one (same place) at about ~12 miles - on the return trip. It was a sunny day, so I'd be sweating more than I had in other long runs when it had been overcast. I debated stopping only at 12 miles, but decided that an extra water stop would not hurt.

No point in going through a mile by mile recap - but one of the first major things I noticed was that I was pretty easily able to keep a HR < 150. Many times on these longer runs, I find I can keep that HR for 30-40 minutes, but then it starts to creep up. In fact, sometimes today it got to the low 140's, and even into the high 130's (usually on downhill sections). That was good news.

The HR started to creep up a bit around mile 13-14 - as that portion has a long gradual uphill. I used cadence and slowing down to keep the HR in check, though - even though I could tell that by this point, I was definately doing > 10:30 min/mile pace. However, the plan says that these runs cannot be too slow - so thats ok with me.

Around mile 16 or so, I started to get a bit of an upset stomach. I wasn't sure of the exact cause, but thought of a few potential reasons:
- Accelerade has protein in it, which my system isn't necessarily used to. Perhaps that was causing an issue - even though I drank the accelerade between miles 8-12.
- Dehydration. The upset stomach came after a particularly long stretch on a road where there was little to no shade, and it was 12:30 by this time, so the sun was getting stronger. However, my mouth was definately not parched, and that is one way I can tell when I'm getting dehydrated.
- Mild (very mild) heat stroke. Same reasons as listed above for dehydration.
- My body just not reacting well to this degree of exertion - by this time, I had been out over 3 hrs - the longest period of time yet.
- Low electrolytes. Kind of a slim possibility - but I kinda messed up the portioning out of the Gatorade powder and everything was a bit weaker than I normally make it (which is already slightly weaker than the product calls for).

In any case, I figured I'd stop and walk for a bit to see what happened. I ended up walking for 10 minutes before I started to feel better and could jog again.

I kept plodding along until I got to around mile 17-18, when things really started to get brutal. Nothing was particularly painful or anything like that (and my upset stomach had largely passed) - but my hips and knees started to really tighten up. I ended up having to take a few walk breaks in that final 2.5 miles or so.

In the end, this was a pretty ass kicking run. I initially thought that it was mostly due to the increased mileage - but as time has passed and I've started to recover, I think I've come to the conclusion that I failed to drink enough liquids. I was out just around 3 hours and 45 minutes, and drank a total of 96 oz of liquid. When I determined my sweat rate last year, I found I lost about 30 oz/hr - and that was with a temperature of about 75 degrees, no direct sun, and 65% humidity. Today there was a lot of direct sun, and the temperature got up to about 80. So, even going with the 30 oz/hr estimate (realistically it was probably higher on a day like today), being out for nearly 4 hours means 120 oz of water minimum. So being at 96 oz total came up a bit short. Not dangerously short - but when you are talking about a distance like 20 miles, every little bit counts. Especially when you are talking about being short of fluids that aid in removal of metabolites from your muscles.

This run also resulted in a bit of knee soreness that I've never really experienced before. Fortunately it has gotten noticably better in the past 8-9 hours since the run, so I'm confident that no major lasting damage has been done. The soreness is mostly on the outside of my knee - seemingly in the area of the lateral ligament. My right knee has an ever so slight degree of soreness in it. It feels like it may be the type of soreness that can take a couple days to get back to 90%.

Total Distance: 19.77 miles
Total Time: 3:42:18 (includes walk breaks and about 6 minutes lost when refilling water bottles)
Avg HR: 149

On the plus side, I was looking through some old entries from last year, and I came across one where I noted that my hips were tightening up around mile 6.
Even as recently as my 15 mile run around a month ago, I noted that my hips started tightening up around mile 11, or after an hour and fifty minutes.
Considering that things didn't start to tighten up until around mile 16 today, which was around the 3 hr mark - thats pretty much all the proof I need that these long slow runs which build up endurance are definately worthwhile.