Week #4 - Day 4

This week's "long run" was an 8 miler which I headed to the park to attempt. I was kind of looking forward to it since I'd be running further in one direction on the towpath than I ever had. But unfortunately, it wasn't the perfect run that I had in mind. Only a few miles into it, my thighs were getting tired which had never happened to me, and it was extra surprising since it was so early in the run. And during mile 3, the back pain kicked in hard again, but only lasted for about a half mile. I hit the four mile mark and started back. It was a hard run back. Unfortunately I walked for the first time, albeit for only about 20-30 seconds at a time, but I found myself doing it 3 or 4 times. The first few were to get some water down, the last couple were because my stomach wasn't doing so great and I felt as if I was going to get sick. It was hot, mid 80s with all sun and no clouds, and my water bottle got emptied early than I had hoped (can't wait for the Camelbak which should arrive Monday). Despite the walking, I actually finished in a decent time of 1:13:13 (a 9:09 mile pace), which is interesting because that's exactly a 4 hour marathon pace.

After the run was over, I drank a lot of Gatorade which I decided to start drinking after I read about the benefits of electrolytes and how you need sodium to sweat. Plus the marathon has Powerade during the race, so I should get used to drinking a "sports drink". I drove through the park a bit in some very nice air-conditioning, and then found a nice shady stretch of path to walk and walked for a little over a mile. Felt pretty good though my legs (now 3 hours later) are pretty wore out.

So I'm now officially 25% done with my marathon training. It's hard to believe that I've gone from barely be able to do 3 miles just four weeks ago, to doing 8 miles (and at a faster pace!). So hopefully I can keep getting my workouts in on a regular basis, keep getting them done, and improve my pace a little more.