14 Miler

Yesterday we got several inches of snow.  We went to our friends' fall barbeque anyway.  It ended up being quite an adventure to get there as the plows had not been out and we had to take a detour due to fallen trees and branches.

That picture is from 3pm.  We got more snow over the afternoon and evening but I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy being angry/in denial that there was snow accumulated on the ground in central NJ in October.  That's supposed to be an upstate NY thing. 

It turned out our friends' house had lost electricity.  So burgers on the grill became burgers on a frying pan over the gas stove top in candle light.  Somehow a whole day of nothing wore me out and at 7pm I was fighting off falling asleep.  I managed to stay awake for a movie then went to bed early.

- - - - -

Sunday I was able to get in my long-awaited 14 mile run.  Luckily it was in the 40s and sunny so most of that snow melted.  I refused to let Mother Nature deny me the pleasure of fall running in shorts and a long sleeve top, so I thumbed my nose at her and ran in shorts anyway.  Dan and I headed out together on snowy/icy sidewalks then we parted ways before the first mile.  I headed for roads with wide shoulders that I thought would have less snow.

I ran the next 13+ miles by myself, no music. I liked Alyssa's split scattergram from a couple weeks ago and I'm borrowing the idea from her to display my splits in a more interesting manner.

14 miles/2h 24 min. Avg Pace: 10:19

I was pleased with this run and felt surprisingly good the entire time.  I treated it as a practice run for November 20th (sort of).  Except that I ran it at 3pm instead of 7am.  But I did wear my new shoes and I spaced my gu the way I plan to for the half marathon (:55 and 1:40, which worked out to be mile ~5.2 and 9.8).

This training run turned out to be the same average pace as my May half marathon.  It makes me wonder what I will be capable of in 3 weeks!  I'm not really sure what my goal pace will be... according to the FIRST program, your training paces are based on your most recent races, not your goal time.

Somewhere hidden on the FIRST website I read that your Half Marathon race pace should be your most recent 5k pace + :35 seconds.  For me, this means my August 5k... so 9:38, or a ~2:06 half.  I should probably look this up and confirm this soon.  Maybe I need to check the book out of the library again...

Did you get snow?  How did it impact your weekend?
Anyone use the FIRST program and know how to determine race pace off hand?

PS
Stay tuned for a Road ID review in the next day or so.  Blogger sadly ate that post Sunday night and I want to take the time to re-do it right.