Probably the most enjoyable outing of my running life tonight.
Christine returned home around 3 pm from her weekend away, and she and the girls and I went down for family nap. I woke up at 630 pm and was determined to get out for my long run this week.
Hit the street just after 7 pm, taking it very slow and keeping my heart rate in the mid 130s. The sun was out, the wind was calm, hardly anyone out on the paths along the Lakeshore and north on the Humber River. Its a bit of an elevation gain moving away from the lake, but I kept myself comfortable and continued up past the Old Mill and settled along the winding, flat path in the Humber River Valley.
1st 10k in 73 minutes
Gave the girls a phone call around 830 pm, just before they went down for bed. I was still on the out-bound portion of my route, but close to my 12.5k turn-around point. The feeling of the night was so positive, I thought I would stretch the run out to the 32k that my clinic peeps had run earlier in the day.
Needless to say, I was a bit nervous about the change in plan. My calf seemed ok, but I hadn't really tested it over 24k since my last training cycle that ended in mid-January. With the injury in early March, and then a re-occurance at the end of March, I didn't want a repeat.
I glided past 12.5k, and got to my turn around @ Eglinton Ave W and Jane St feeling strong. It was getting fairly dark on the route, no lights on the bike path, but enough contrast that I felt ok being out there. I was feeling so good that I started belting out some of the songs on my iPod, only disturbing a racoon or two along the way.
2nd 10k in 68 minutes
My second split was five minutes faster than the first, so I thought to myself that I would try to lower my third 10k stretch by the same amount to 63 minutes. Of course, my heart rate began to creep up and the lactic acid began building up in my legs. The soreness was mostly in my thighs and my knees were tight. This actually gave me a big smile - as it's the normal course for my body on a long run. The fact that the calf and glutes were strong spurred me along feeling good.
By the time I got back down to the mouth of the Humber and onto the Martin Goodman Trail, I was pretty tired. Nearly a month off will have that effect! heheheh There was also a massive easterly wind pushing me in the face for the mile along the lake before I turned back into High Park.
Got to the 30k mark at 3:29:30, so I ran the third 10k split in about the same time as the second. Pretty good result, but I was thinking about how I can structure my race in Ottawa to start slow, and progress through the four 10k's in gradually improving splits. My thinking for the race is 73, 70, 67, 64 - which would bring me in around 4:47. Not too shabby for a first marathon.
Got up the hill on Spring Rd and ended my run at Humberside Ave. Looked at my watch and saw it was nearly 11 pm. Thought about how crazy it was that I spent the whole evening running. Smiled at how crazy it was that I spent the whole evening running!! :-)
Distance 32k (20mi)
Time 3:43:49
Pace 6:59/km (11:11/mi)
HR max 188, avg 155
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