When I ran the 20 miles a few weeks ago, I did so in the middle of the day. As it turned out, that day was one of the few sunny (but still humid, of course) days this year. I ended up not drinking enough fluids, and around mile 16, I had to walk for about 10 minutes to allow some nausea to subside. During that last 3.5-4 miles, I had to stop and walk quite a few times - the lactic acid and muscle soreness/tightness that built up during that 10 minute walk really hindered my ability to run continuously throughout those last few miles.
This time around, I finally got smart and decided to get up early and get the run over with during the cooler part of the day. So at 5 am, I woke up, and I was out of the house by 5:20. The weather was showing to be in the 60's - and although it was humid, it was FAR more comfortable. This time I also did a little bit more preparation - I had my fuel belt filled with gatorade, I had recently found little pill containers (similar to the containers here - minus the tube) that held just enough gatorade mix for 8 oz (the size of the Fuel Belt flasks) - so I was able to bring additional easily-dispensable mix, and I had gone out the night before to stash bottles of water along the route. I also brought a Clif Builders bar with me - if the Accelerade is a good long run supplement because of the protein, I figured this would be a good way to accomplish much the same thing.
The other major difference in this run was that I returned to the run-walk-run strategy - except this time instead of running for 1 mile and walking for 1 minute (as I did with the 13 and 15 mile runs previously), I ran for 4 minutes and walked for 30 seconds. This is closer to the ratios given by Galloway when looking for a 8-9 min/mile pace during a marathon. I reverted to the run-walk-run mostly because the outside of my left knee was still exhibiting soreness after a couple miles during my runs over the past week. I've since determined that it is likely an overuse injury on the IT band - but fortunately somewhat mild. I had been taking it easy during the week because I wanted to give that a chance to heal as much as possible - and I figured that if I took the walk breaks I could minimize pain and extend the run.
For the most part, it worked. I started feeling the IT band around mile 4-5 or so, but it was very minor discomfort so I was able to continue running. It started getting more aggravating over the next couple miles, but at mile 8 I took what ended up being a 5 minute break to refill my flasks at the first water stop. That break was enough to keep the aggravation away for a few miles, and allow me to continue to the second refill spot at mile 15 where I took another break to refill the flasks. After that break, I was able to continue for another 4 miles where the IT band just became too painful to continue on without concern of doing real damage. I ended up walking a large portion of those last 4 miles, as I was only able to run for a few minutes at a time, in between 5-7 minute walk breaks. I had thought about calling for a pick up - but since I was able to walk with no issue - I really wanted to get the 23 miles in under my own power.
The bummer about the whole thing is that everything else - hips, knees, muscles, energy levels, etc - all felt absolutely fine. In fact, had it not been for the IT band, I probably would have looked to run the last 6 miles or so continuously at an increased pace.
Throughout the rest of the day, I iced the IT band a few times, did some stretching and strengthening exercises (to try and speed recovery and prevent it from happening again), and before bed took some Advil to help get the inflammation down.
At this point, the most important thing is getting it healed up. I'll likely skip any running this week and continue with icing, stretching and strengthening. If I really need to, I can adjust my training schedule to skip the next long run and/or the next mile repeat session - as the mile repeats a couple weeks ago are when I really started feeling the IT band become aggravated more. I'd rather not skip either of those types of workouts - but if I need to, thats what I'll have to do.
Total Distance: 23.07 miles
Total Time: 4:18:16
Avg HR: 143
Mile by mile breakdown (time/avg HR)
(mile marks are +/- 200 yds of true mile marks - I lost my printout at around mile 5 and had to go by memory of landmarks)
Mile 1: 9:42/129
Mile 2: 9:40/140
Mile 3: 8:58/144
Mile 4: 9:53/146
Mile 5: 9:44/146
Mile 6: 9:28/150
Mile 7: 9:29/147
Mile 8: 10:27/149
Break: 5:05
Mile 9: 9:43/144
Mile 10: 9:45/149
Mile 11: 9:30/151
Mile 12: 9:36/149
Mile 13: 9:17/150
Mile 14: 10:36/153
Mile 15: 9:00/154
Break: 6:02
Mile 16: 10:08/150
Mile 17: 10:20/153
Mile 18: 9:13/153
Mile 19: 9:27/153
Mile 20: 17:19/133 (walk)
Mile 21: 13:13/136 (walk)
Mile 22: 16:48/129 (walk)
Mile 23: 15:33/132 (walk)
The main thing that I noticed was that throughout the entire running portion (excluding those last 4 miles where I had to walk a lot) - the pace was amazingly consistent around 9:45 min/mile. There were some variances due to terrain or my hitting the lap button within a couple hundred yards of the true mile spot. The 4 minutes of running with 30 seconds of walking really seemed to help with keeping a consistant pace as well as keeping the HR in check - often times below 150.
Also - the trend continues where I am generally able to run fairly comfortably through the distance of my last long run (in this case 20 miles). The IT band issue and its effects being excluded - my level of exertion through 20 miles (as dictated by HR) was kept well in check without sacrificing pace. Running during the early morning and out of the direct mid-day sun helped with that, I'm sure.
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