I ran 4 miles today.
Farthest ever. I suppose I should admit I had a couple of walk breaks, but in a good, (mostly) planned way, so I'm not ashamed.
See, I had an epiphany.
I have accepted that I will need walk breaks to make it through the half marathon. I was just trying to figure out how to do it without making myself crazy with beeping watches and walking in seemingly random spots. (I think I might be too OCD to do like a run 10 walk 2, because I simply can't bring myself to do it. It's not tied to mileage, and for whatever reason my hardwired little brain can't deal with that.)
Anyhoo. I was sayin.
I had an epiphany that turned into a plan. I was going to walk the aid stations anyway... so I'll make my 2 minute walk breaks start at each aid station!
(I realize many of you are now saying "um, yeah. DUH." You'll have to forgive me, my mind has been otherwise occupied of late.)
The obvious flaw in my plan, of course, is if there are not aid stations at each mile. But that's ok, because I plan to carry my own bottle of Nuun and there will surely be mile markers.
Oh, and it does seem to be true... if I can force myself to keep running past the half hour mark, it seems to numb the suckage and things get a bit easier.
Today's 4 miles (with walk breaks, which obviously increased towards the end) took about an hour (mile 1: 14:30, mile 2: 13:48, mile 3: 15:27, mile 4: 16:36). So, worst case, I figure I can do the half in about 3:15... sucky, yes.... but I'll take it.
Regarding the numbed suckage... even though I had to walk a bit more in that last mile, when I hit my driveway I didn't actually need to stop. That's HUGE for me. I could have run a bit more, but am trying to reign in the mileage increases and not get hurt more, plus my 'this little piggy had none' toe got another squishy blister that needed attention.
Do you have any idea how cool it is that the reason I stopped running was that my squishy blister was grossing me out, and NOT because I my heart was going to, ya know, burst out of my chest?
5 comments:
Walking through aid stations, who knew? ;)
I LOVE YOUR PLAN!!!
(yes I was shouting on purpose)
I run 9 walk 1 bc it adds up to ten! A bit OCD but you win on that front.
And WELL DONE not coughing up a lung - that is a huge step. There will be many more :)
BTW never call running 21km sucky, no matter how long it takes!
Sounds like a plan!!! Good luck!!
And congrats on the 4 miler!!
Yeah for you! That's awesome. And great plan, to boot!
You are doing AWESOME!! Keep it up!! You know what I cracked up at. I actually had to do the 'This little piggy" poem to figure out which toe you were talking about. It made me giggle.
Have a blessed day!!
Post a Comment