Legs = not bad

I was expecting my legs to be in rough shape today, but they're really not too bad. I was worse off than this 2 weeks ago after the Caesar Rodney half marathon. I'll head into the gym Tuesday for a few easy treadmill miles & stretch.

Here's the run-down on yesterday's effort, overall it's 24 miles @ 8:45 pace:
Ate good carbs Sat. nite, and got a good nite's sleep. Woke up to some caffeine, a dump, a shower, a Gu packet, and drinking half a bottle of water. Decided to def wear the new Brooks Glycerin's - hell it's the first time ever spending over $100 on shoes so I'd better put them to the test. They passed with flying colors! Greased up the toes pretty well, small concern about new shoes, have only run in them once, and wore them around the house a half day once also. I set out a whole smorgasbord on the bench on the front porch. If I hadn't already fallen behind schedule I would've taken a picture to post here. Several waters, Gatorades, Gu's, cereal bars and new pouch of trail mix. I was supposed to meet my neighbor in front of his house at 8... was about 10 mins. after when I got there (about a block & a half).
It was awesome to have somebody to to run with - thanks again to Ray for pacing me to a conversational pace for the first 6 miles. One of my big faults is going out too fast, and this long run seriously emphasized this error. These early miles went down smooth & easy:
1. 9:30
2. 9:07 - 18:37
3. 8:55 - 27:32
4. 8:43 - 36:15
5. 9:43 - 45:58
6. 8:53 - 54:51

That mile #5 included a 45 second walk/break for a Gu packet & water. I left Ray after #6 and tried to pick up the pace right away, although then the next mile has a significant uphill. The rain had started up again (beginning was wet but only foggy, not actually raining in early miles). All these middle miles were enjoyable; my confidence was building as each mile passed:
7. 8:35 - 1:03:26
8. 8:45 - 1:12:11
9. 8:05 - 1:20:16
10. 9:15 - 1:29:31
11. 8:42 - 1:38:13
12. 8:10 - 1:46:23
13. 8:36 - 1:54:59
14. 8:01 - 2:03:00
15. 8:45 - 2:11:45
16. 9:15 - 2:21:00
17. 8:01 - 2:29:01
18. 8:00 - 2:37:01

Miles # 10 & 16 each included about 45 seconds for water & Gu & about 1/3 of of cereal bar. I'm wondering how much credit to give these walk breaks which were timed to each loop around back to pass my house. Of course I've heard of the run/walk philosophy, which I've always thought that it's just not for me, so how might help could those breaks provide? I will have to experiment with this further in the next weeks/months prior to the marathon day. I also popped inside to grab a towel to dry my glasses, which at this point I could barely see thru the rain. The weather varied between mist/ light rain/ fog and the temp was either slowly climbing or my own exertion was beginning to send me thru cycles of too warm (take gloves off) then too cold (retrieve gloves, put back on). I only carried one Gu at a time, since I had the supply on the porch, so I had plenty of pocket room for gloves.

This next section I began to feel fatigue setting in, but was able to mostly hold pace and push thru. Every small uphill felt like it was taking something measurable out of me. My calves felt very heavy & tight on these uphill stretches. But after a few minutes on the flat or downhill I recovered. Also my right plantar/arch area was feeling pain off & on. My index toes on both feet were obviously taking a pounding...and they hadn't fully recovered from the C.R. half yet. Someplace around 17 or 18 I had to stop and loosen the laces on my right shoe because my feet were swelling and the right was becoming uncomfortable. Here's the final splits:
19. 8:31 - 2:45:32
20. 8:21 - 2:53:53
21. 9:25 - 3:03:18
22. 9:02 - 3:12:20
23. 8:25 - 3:20:45
24. 8:24 - 3:29:09

Mile #21 had the walk/Gu/drink break. Actually, this was a funny one. As I come to the porch a squirrel runs away and I didn't think much of it. But I knew there was no more Gu's out, so I was planning on the remainder of cereal bar and a handful of dried fruits from the trail mix (planned to pick out the nuts because i don't think they would sit well). So I reach for the cereal bar, and it's not there! And the trail mix is all torn open and spilled out... Apparently that squirrel had one hell of an awesome Sunday brunch on my front porch! I did see the cereal bar wrapper in the mulch down by the steps. I headed right inside to grab another Gu. So I never did test the dried fruit, will attempt that on a future workout. My kids already know that dad has a running battle with the squirrels, so this only adds fuel to the situation. Lately it's not been so bad, but about 2 years ago we were totally overrun with the critters. We had trapped and released about a dozen - moved over to the state park about a mile away.

Anyway, all during these last miles I was trying to do the mental math to figure 'What's my pace' and 'How far should I try for' and etc. I debated stopping at 21, and then again at 22. I considered going for the full 26 too. But in the end I settled on 24 because I had calculated that the total time would equal the BQ standard for my age= M45 is 3:30:59. So I was 2.2 miles short, and if I subtract out the walk breaks 3 mins + under time of about 1:45... bottom line is that I need to run 30 secs. per mile faster to BQ. That seems like a tall order especially given that the most important lesson learned here is to go out easy for the first miles. Unless some future training sessions indicate I can go faster, I'm giving up the BQ dream for this first marathon and will set the goal at 3:40 - 3:45 range instead.

Damn, that's a long list of mile splits! I've been eating anything & everything since finishing yestserday's long run. We'll see the bottom line about that tomorrow on the scale at the Y.