10 Miles!!!

Just a warning, this post is long. Get some coffee, relax, enjoy!

Yesterday was my longest training run scheduled. 10 miles. This was the longest training run I was going to ever do. Yes I have done two half-marathons and never did a 10 mile training run. We can all guess why those races didn't go so well now can't we?

I had two good 5 mile runs during the week (the fact that I got them done was why they were both good).  Both were the exact same time, 64 minutes a piece. That just sounds slow, but other than that, they were slower than my goal pace for the race. I was worried going into the 10 mile run only because I didn't want my pace to be even slower. On top of this, the day before Paul and I moved furniture and etc to multiple different houses. As unhelpful as I actually was in carrying things, my arms were still sore when I got up to run. So yes, this all set the scene for a pretty rough 10 miles for me to run.

I tried to have this run be just like a test run for the race. I ran in the exact same outfit I plan to wear race day to make sure it was comfortable...no worries it was. I also decided it was time to add in some nutrition during my races. I know many (many) people that have gu's and etc during races and training runs. I have never had a gu before in my life. I typically will have a protein bar (Luna bars are amazing) about 20 minutes before I run, and just gatorade/water when I am running. I decided it was time to at least give the gu's a test run....I also had free samples from my tri meeting the other night (more info on that tomorrow). Paul helped me figure out what to have and when to have it etc during my run. I was very skeptical about gu's (as I clearly should have been), but knew this would help so I listened to the advice and brought them along.

On to the run! I had a key plan for this run. I was going to run 9 minutes and walk for 1. I heard about it a few times and believe it was started in Canada, I figured why not give it a shot. Once I started running however I got a little confused on my timing. I couldn't remember if I was supposed to be running 9 minutes at a time or 10. I also realized how short 1 minute actually was when you need time to recover. I very quickly decided I would do 10 minutes straight running and then 2 minutes of walking. I had planned to have a gu at 30-35 mins, 60-65 mins, and then some chewys at 90-95. By breaking my runs up by time, it was easier for me to get through the 10 miles, mostly because I wasn't focused on the mileage at all.

At 34 minutes I had my first gu. At 35 minutes I almost threw up from the gu. It was not for me....and that is an understatement. After some time though I noticed times that I usually would of been tired I was able to push on. At 61 minutes it was time for gu number two. While this flavor was better, some how I had to throw up more. I am unsure if my relationship with gu's will continue in the future, but I am glad I at least got them down for the run. At 95 mins, I had the most delicious snack in the world. The raspberry PowerBar chews I had were fantastic. I would sit down and eat these things just as a regular snack. I can already tell these chews will be my friend in the future.

Finally after 2 hours and 3 minutes, my 10 miles were done. This not only was better than I had expected, but put me on track for my race pace! I could not have been happier with my 10 mile run yesterday, and I'm pretty sure nobody expected to hear me say those words. If my race day goes as well as the training run I will be very happy.

Happy Monday everyone! I'll have my post about my nutrition tri meeting tomorrow!