Yesterday I was supposed to run 12 miles. I'm following a training schedule that Hal Higdon designed. My friend Chris sought out the book and I used this same schedule for the completion of last year's Marine Corps Marathon. Chris helped pace me through the last half of that race, just a couple weeks prior to his run in the Richmond Marathon.
This year we deicded to seek out a marathon that we could run together. He helped me tremendously last year, but doing 13 at a pace a bit quicker than he was used to may have caused him a bit of comfort and success for his own run.
A second buddy, Robert, ran the Richmond Marathon with Chris last year as well. Those two ran the Marathon in the Parks in DC/Maryland in 2004 together. This year Robert has yet to commit to which marathon he is going to run. He's unsure where he'll be in November, but has his eyes on the Seattle Marathon. He claims there is a chance he might be able to run with Chris and I when we hit the Outerbanks Marathon on November 12th.
Robert had the weekend off from a pretty grueling work schedule and he and I wanted to run together yesterday. I'd done 16 last weekend and Robert, who is a week behind me on the Hal Higdon training schedule was due to run 16 yesterday. I decided that I would leave the house with him and then see how I felt after 6, the point at which I could turn around to easily complete a 12 mile out-and-back.
I decided that we should just run the same route that I had run last weekend. Part of the trouble with doing really long runs is knowing what route to run. I often find myself as early as Wednesday or Thursday during a week beginning to contemplate and almost worry about where I'll go. This weekend I wanted the run to be a chance for Robert and I to catch up by talking, so the decision to run an already calculated route made the most sense.
Rarely do I do a run that doesn't start and end at my house. The thought of driving to run doesn't particularly interest me. I already think that long runs eat up way too much time, so to add a 15 minute drive on either side rarely makes sense to me. If we had amazing trails within that short of a radius of the house, like I did when I visit my buddy Bricks in Boulder, Colorado, I'm sure this would be an entirely different story. Therefore, we left my house shortly after 10:30am.
The first mile is on surface streets, but then we are able to head down a big hill on Harvard Avenue before cutting through the backside of the National Zoo and getting on Rock Creek Parkway. The weather was a nice, chilly temperature and there was very light rain coming down. It's approximately another 3 miles to the entrance for the C&O canal down in Georgetown. The first mile of that is on a bit of hilly brick-sidewalk that goes by a few quaint shops and restaurants as well as the C&O Canal visitor's center.
By the time we were on the "real" C&O canal (just at the western end of Georgetown) I figured it'd been approximately 5 miles (my watch read 38 minutes had elapsed). Robert was running with a nano iPod as well as the new Nike software which uses satellite and a radio transmitter between a receiver on the shoe and the iPod nano itself to measure the distance you've covered. It also plays music, but we were talking the entire time so he had to put an earphone in to see what the computer said. We were at 4.98 miles. My internal pacing sensor was equal to that of the computer!
At that point I felt good. On my longer runs I've probably been averaging around a 7:30 minute/mile pace. To slow it down to 8 significantly improved my stamina. For the first time in all of my long training runs I could sense that a negative split would be possible and I might not have to mentally challenge myself to finish the run. Of course, we were only 1/3rd of the way through, so there was a chance that these thoughts could be erased.
They weren't, however. When we hit the 1 hour mark I still felt great and realized that we must be approaching our turn around spot. I was surprised because I realized that the week before I had surely gone out longer than 8 miles. Thinking back I wasn't sure if my intended return route was going to be exactly the same distance the route to the C&O had been. To break up the monotony I'd planned to hop on the Capitol Crescent Trail, which paralells the C&O for the first 3 miles out of Georgetown, and run on surface streets back to my house.
Yesterday we did the same thing, and upon the finish of the run Robert indicated my suspicions were correct - it was 7.5 miles on the return. That said, the week before, when I was supposed to go 16, I probably ended up doing somewhere along the lines of 17.5-18.
The nice thing about running on the C&O or the Capitol Crescent Trail is that they have mile markers. It allows you to confirm the pace you think you're running at. On all of my long runs I typically calculate the distance I am going to travel based on 8 minute miles. That's exactlly how I ended up going out 9 miles the week before. If I were to assume that I would need to turn around at the 8 mile marker, that would be at 64 minutes. But, if I was running an expedited pace, which seems to happen frequently, I would surpass 8 miles. In fact if I was actually running 7:30/miles when I reached 64 minutes I would have run 9 miles. Eerie.
Our return yesterday was nice. Robert did begin to slow down a bit on the back half of the run. While the 8 minutes was a tad slower than I was training, it was right at what he was used to running at. Therefore, once we'd left Georgetown and hit L Street NW, I could tell that my energy level was much higher than his. In fact, I felt that I could easily pick up the pace and finish the last 2-3 miles much quicker. Once we turned left onto 15th Street Robert gave me the signal that he was going to keep the moderate pace he was at and that I should feel free to take off.
From 15th street it's almost all uphill back to my house. It's a slight incline up 15th to just past U street, then I make a slight right onto Florida Avenue, where the incline becomes a tad bit steeper. Once I make a left on 14th Street, the real challenge presents itself. However, it's a short hill, less than half a mile, and once you crest the top you've surely almost reached the end.
I pushed myself and ended up finishing feeling great! The fact that I was forced to slow down to keep the pace comfortable for myself and Robert made it so I could finish the run feeling wonderful.
Next week I'm due to run 18. If things work out, I might be able to run with Chris who is supposed to be in town for a wedding. I am, however, supposed to be out of town, but I'm hoping there's a way that we can run together. Last year we did all of our long runs together, and the fact that we can talk and laugh while we're running surely makes the 2+ hours we are out pounding the pavement much more enjoyable.
This year we deicded to seek out a marathon that we could run together. He helped me tremendously last year, but doing 13 at a pace a bit quicker than he was used to may have caused him a bit of comfort and success for his own run.
A second buddy, Robert, ran the Richmond Marathon with Chris last year as well. Those two ran the Marathon in the Parks in DC/Maryland in 2004 together. This year Robert has yet to commit to which marathon he is going to run. He's unsure where he'll be in November, but has his eyes on the Seattle Marathon. He claims there is a chance he might be able to run with Chris and I when we hit the Outerbanks Marathon on November 12th.
Robert had the weekend off from a pretty grueling work schedule and he and I wanted to run together yesterday. I'd done 16 last weekend and Robert, who is a week behind me on the Hal Higdon training schedule was due to run 16 yesterday. I decided that I would leave the house with him and then see how I felt after 6, the point at which I could turn around to easily complete a 12 mile out-and-back.
I decided that we should just run the same route that I had run last weekend. Part of the trouble with doing really long runs is knowing what route to run. I often find myself as early as Wednesday or Thursday during a week beginning to contemplate and almost worry about where I'll go. This weekend I wanted the run to be a chance for Robert and I to catch up by talking, so the decision to run an already calculated route made the most sense.
Rarely do I do a run that doesn't start and end at my house. The thought of driving to run doesn't particularly interest me. I already think that long runs eat up way too much time, so to add a 15 minute drive on either side rarely makes sense to me. If we had amazing trails within that short of a radius of the house, like I did when I visit my buddy Bricks in Boulder, Colorado, I'm sure this would be an entirely different story. Therefore, we left my house shortly after 10:30am.
The first mile is on surface streets, but then we are able to head down a big hill on Harvard Avenue before cutting through the backside of the National Zoo and getting on Rock Creek Parkway. The weather was a nice, chilly temperature and there was very light rain coming down. It's approximately another 3 miles to the entrance for the C&O canal down in Georgetown. The first mile of that is on a bit of hilly brick-sidewalk that goes by a few quaint shops and restaurants as well as the C&O Canal visitor's center.
By the time we were on the "real" C&O canal (just at the western end of Georgetown) I figured it'd been approximately 5 miles (my watch read 38 minutes had elapsed). Robert was running with a nano iPod as well as the new Nike software which uses satellite and a radio transmitter between a receiver on the shoe and the iPod nano itself to measure the distance you've covered. It also plays music, but we were talking the entire time so he had to put an earphone in to see what the computer said. We were at 4.98 miles. My internal pacing sensor was equal to that of the computer!
At that point I felt good. On my longer runs I've probably been averaging around a 7:30 minute/mile pace. To slow it down to 8 significantly improved my stamina. For the first time in all of my long training runs I could sense that a negative split would be possible and I might not have to mentally challenge myself to finish the run. Of course, we were only 1/3rd of the way through, so there was a chance that these thoughts could be erased.
They weren't, however. When we hit the 1 hour mark I still felt great and realized that we must be approaching our turn around spot. I was surprised because I realized that the week before I had surely gone out longer than 8 miles. Thinking back I wasn't sure if my intended return route was going to be exactly the same distance the route to the C&O had been. To break up the monotony I'd planned to hop on the Capitol Crescent Trail, which paralells the C&O for the first 3 miles out of Georgetown, and run on surface streets back to my house.
Yesterday we did the same thing, and upon the finish of the run Robert indicated my suspicions were correct - it was 7.5 miles on the return. That said, the week before, when I was supposed to go 16, I probably ended up doing somewhere along the lines of 17.5-18.
The nice thing about running on the C&O or the Capitol Crescent Trail is that they have mile markers. It allows you to confirm the pace you think you're running at. On all of my long runs I typically calculate the distance I am going to travel based on 8 minute miles. That's exactlly how I ended up going out 9 miles the week before. If I were to assume that I would need to turn around at the 8 mile marker, that would be at 64 minutes. But, if I was running an expedited pace, which seems to happen frequently, I would surpass 8 miles. In fact if I was actually running 7:30/miles when I reached 64 minutes I would have run 9 miles. Eerie.
Our return yesterday was nice. Robert did begin to slow down a bit on the back half of the run. While the 8 minutes was a tad slower than I was training, it was right at what he was used to running at. Therefore, once we'd left Georgetown and hit L Street NW, I could tell that my energy level was much higher than his. In fact, I felt that I could easily pick up the pace and finish the last 2-3 miles much quicker. Once we turned left onto 15th Street Robert gave me the signal that he was going to keep the moderate pace he was at and that I should feel free to take off.
From 15th street it's almost all uphill back to my house. It's a slight incline up 15th to just past U street, then I make a slight right onto Florida Avenue, where the incline becomes a tad bit steeper. Once I make a left on 14th Street, the real challenge presents itself. However, it's a short hill, less than half a mile, and once you crest the top you've surely almost reached the end.
I pushed myself and ended up finishing feeling great! The fact that I was forced to slow down to keep the pace comfortable for myself and Robert made it so I could finish the run feeling wonderful.
Next week I'm due to run 18. If things work out, I might be able to run with Chris who is supposed to be in town for a wedding. I am, however, supposed to be out of town, but I'm hoping there's a way that we can run together. Last year we did all of our long runs together, and the fact that we can talk and laugh while we're running surely makes the 2+ hours we are out pounding the pavement much more enjoyable.
posted by Mike Mowery at 7:06 AM
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