First Long Run of Marathon Training

Sunday morning was my first long run on marathon training and my longest run since the Nike Women's Half Marathon back in April. I didn't really talk about it on the blog but my running after the half was less than stellar. For a few weeks I felt sluggish and dizzy on all my runs, coupled with off and on hip/glute pain. I cut way back on how much I was running and even took close to two weeks off to let my hip/glute calm down. Since the middle to end of June I have been running around 3 times a week as part of triathlon training but it wasn't until about 2 weeks ago that I started to feel good on my runs (I'm blaming the heat & humidity and how terribly I function between the two of them).

The plan for Sunday was 90 minutes at an 8:45 pace if possible. I knew this would be challenging and told myself to that it was okay if I only held 9:00 since my running isn't where it used to be. Since my family and I are on vacation in Chincoteague, Virginia this week I planned a route that would take me from the house we are renting over to the beach. I wanted to try to see the sunrise over the bay so I woke up at 5:15 and was out the door by 5:55. I decided I wanted to do some faster miles during this run to make it go by more quickly so I did 1.5 miles warm up, 2 miles at marathon goal pace, 1 mile easy, 3 miles at half marathon pace, 1 mile easy, 1 mile at 10K pace, .75 cool down.

This run went so much better than I was expecting it to. I ended up hitting faster paces than I was supposed to and felt really strong the whole way. I also didn't even need to take the gel I brought with me! Runs like these remind me why I love running and training for these races. I know my long runs are only going to get longer and harder from here but Sunday's run was a good indicator that I am in much better run shape than I thought.

1.5 miles warm up   9:29 avg
2 miles @ MGP      8:38, 8:36
1 mile easy              9:23
3 miles & HMGP   8:23, 8:11, 8:09
1 mile easy              9:22
1 mile @10K pace  7:59
.75 mile cool down  9:16 avg

The marathon and half marathon goal pace miles were all too quick and the 10K pace mile was a right on but in general I felt really steady and strong. When I was running the marathon goal pace miles I felt like I was running between 8:50-8:55 which would have been spot on. The three miles at half marathon pace were fairly challenging, especially the last one, but I really wanted to push it on this run since I was feeling so good. After the run I jumped straight into the ocean to cool off. It wasn't that hot out since I finished around 7:30 but it was certainly humid. The water was ~72 degrees so I didn't stay in too long but it sure felt great on my tired legs.

I am going to be in Chincoteague until Friday morning, will be heading home to unpack and repack because Friday evening I'm heading to the Florida Keys for my boyfriend's birthday! I'll be getting home super late next Saturday and have a race Sunday morning which won't be pretty since I won't really be able to bike or swim at all before the race but at least I'm ending summer with some awesome trips. I am looking forward to really getting to work with marathon training once I get back though. I'll certainly be running in Florida but that will also probably not be too pretty. At least it'll be good views, right?!

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