Monday 17km Long Run

Yay…at 1 hour 45 minutes this morning I just ran longer in both time and distance than ever before in my life!! The Guide advises 20% [faster **] than Half Marathon pace for the long runs, so seeing as I’m aiming for 5 min / km, this was about right at just over 6 min / km. The last 10 minute of the climb home I was starting to feel it, but felt strong otherwise despite the runny nose!

[**EDIT - yeah, good pickup gnscon - that'd be "slower" unless my program is leading up to a very relaxed HM run...and why not, it's not like I have a PB to beat ;) ]

I ran pretty much the same route as last week but went a bit further towards Settlement Point and a few minor variations. This route is hilly at the start (but a net downhill to sea level), flat for roughly 10km and finally a bit of a climb back home.

This was actually a test run for a number of items:

After grabbing a few different gels at the Ironman expo I wanted to test one out. Some people consider gels to be of little use up to HM distance, but figured it can’t hurt to have a bit more energy in the system on the day when you’re going a bit harder than normal. I wouldn’t generally use them while training but wanted to follow the old don’t try anything in a race that you haven’t done in training rule. This was a High5 Citrus and I had it about 30 minutes in after having some fruit before leaving home. Felt some minor tightness in the stomach about 20 minutes afterwards having it for a minute or two, but whether that was just because I was actively looking for that sort of thing I’m uncertain. I can’t really say I felt much of a boost at any stage. Perhaps the final climb would have been more draining otherwise?

I picked up some compression tights last weekend, and gave them the first real test on the run today. They’re not as tight as skins, but mostly I wanted them because long runs tend to get uncomfortable with the legs constantly rubbing and shorts riding up. They were absolutely fantastic –the only thing I noticed was the complete lack of discomfort. I still wore shorts over the top though (for the pockets!).

The other thing was that I carried a water bottle for the first time because of the gel and I was sick of stopping for a drink from the inconveniently placed taps along the route. Also good for a bit of an arm/shoulder workout! It had finger grooves in it for easy holding, and it was great to be able to regularly grab half a mouthful when I wanted to. But I’m thinking a fuel belt might be the way to go as I sometimes “caught” the arm carrying the bottle slacking off, and at the end of the day was a bit of a hassle to have to hand carry it for so long.

ALSO, I tried out the newly purchased bodyglide on a couple of spots on the upper body that usually cop some chafing (no need to use on the legs now) and it came through with flying colours. I can feel some very minor discomfort now, but seeing as it’s generally painful during the course of runs shorter than this, it's a huge improvement.

So I had a real crash test dummy sort of run and got through it with all body parts intact.