Nearly Long Run

Sometimes training plans/runs don't go as planned.

1. Sundays are my long run days.  This Sunday it rained a lot.  My options were: 30 minute limit on the treadmill at the gym, or run outside in downpour.  The break in the rain I mentioned yesterday lasted about 5 minutes.  Hubs offered to run with me anyway, in the rain.  So we did an easy, but very soggy run together yesterday.
 

2. My plan was to leave work early (a.k.a. right on time) and to squeeze in a long run between work and a function for my husband's work tonight.
2a. Couldn't go to spinning because of husband's work function.
2b. Can't do my long run Tuesday due to needing to stay at work until approximately 6:30 or 7. 

3. Wasn't able to leave work until about 20-30 minutes later than I wanted to.

4. That meant I had 2 hours and 10 minutes to change, run, shower and be presentable to leave the apartment.

It was clear I was not going to be able to get in a 10-11 mile run at this point.  So I told myself I would run for approximately 8 miles, or as long as I could get in, leaving about 25 minutes to get ready.  The plan was to run it at a comfortable pace, but to do a 3/1 run (per Hal Higdon: A 3/1 run is one in which you run the first three-fourths of the distance at a comfortable pace, then accelerate to near race pace over the last one quarter of the workout. (You should finish refreshed, not fatigued.) 


Here's what happened:

Ok.  So I started out the first .4 miles at a 10:15 pace.  How did this start happening!?  I made myself slow down a lot.  Still faster than Long Run pace (I think of this as the 11-11:30, or even slower range). 

Lap 2: still too fast.

Laps 3 and 4 were closer to the right pace.

Lap 5: faster again.

Lap 6: better long slow run pace.  At approximately 5.3 miles I had a sudden need to pee. (TMI).  Never in my short 2 years of running have I had to pee mid run.  Luckily the nearby park I was about to enter has bathrooms, which I had not used prior to today, and water fountains. I encountered these at mile 5.8

Lap 7: I thought I paused the Garmin when I made my pit stop.  I didn't.  I then pushed the lap button by accident somewhere in the bathroom process (apparently at 5.84 miles).

Lap 8:  I hit this lap button after the pit stop and I got running again, I thought I was evening it out so my laps were back on .00 again, but I was off.  This bothers anal-retentive me.  But this is the 1 part of my 3/1 run.  I *intentionally* picked up the pace to be closer to the faster end of my desired half marathon pace (10:23-10:42)

Lap 9: Another half marathon pace lap.

Lap 10: .48 miles at an even faster pace, not sure what happened...I think running downhill happened.

Lap 11:  I walked the remaining .08 miles home.

Check out the nice gradual hill:

Happy with my 167 average heart rate (and 181 max HR)  for a faster-than-easy pace run.  Or is 11ish becoming my new easy pace?? 

While it wasn't the 10ish miles I was hoping to get in, I'm still proud that I was still able to get in an 8.52 mile run on a week day!  I've already had a 10 mile run (10.49 to be exact) and I still have 3 long run Sundays before the half, so I should stop worrying about it not being as long as I wanted it to be.


Lessons Learned:

1. Never count on being able to leave work on time. Haha.
2. Don't chug a 16 ounce Nalgene bottle on your drive home from work + over half of a 21 ounce bottle of water in the first 5 miles of your run.  You will have to pee.
3. Use the Bezel Lock feature on your Garmin to prevent accidental lap-button-pressing.
4. Try not to freak out when you can't do your training plan exactly as written.