Just a quick entry here to review my last run as I "prepare" for the Shamrock 5K later this afternoon. And by prepare I mean watching Sportscenter and playing some online poker to rest my muscles. Hey, I turned $1,000 into $12,000 in 2.5 hours last night...unfortunately it was play money. Sad. :( There's no way I have the balls to put $1,000 of my own real money into online poker! I'd probably lose it all and then cry like a little girl.
Anyway, I did my long run for the week on Friday for several reasons. First, I had the day off and it was a good way of spending a few hours in the late morning/early afternoon. Second, the weather was pretty nice: in the low 50's with sunshine and some wind. I was able to run in shorts and a t-shirt for the first time in months! I even got a little sun on my neck from the sunshine. Third, Annie and I went to Kennett Square, PA (don't know where that is? Don't worry, no one else does either so you aren't missing much) for a singing competition. It was being held at this retirement village (seriously) so that made it weird. But we were in and out in about 40 minutes and back in Baltimore by about 5:15 yesterday so it was a nice excursion into NASCAR country. Lastly, today is the Shamrock 5K so it made sense to do the long run on Friday and take Saturday as a rest day to make sure I was fresh for today.
I got out the door late, per usual, and decided to run the route out to Ft. McHenry rather than running into Fells Point and Patterson Park. There's a less traffic along that route and so I would have less chance of having to stop for intersections, etc. So I ran out there and did 4 laps around the fort, since each lap is 1 mile, and then ran back to the Inner Harbor. I only missed hitting 11 miles exactly by .08 miles, which is pretty good for estimating using Map My Run. I took my time since I was going 11 miles for the first time in several weeks. No need to get injured or exhausted before mile 6, you know. I averaged a 9:30 pace and felt good throughout the majority of the run. I took some Shot Blocks at around 6 miles (1 hour of running, roughly) and they helped keep me going. My legs started to hurt around mile 10 and that really slowed me down. My knees and calves and thighs were quite sore, but I wasn't physically exhausted. Tired, yes. Totally spent, no. All of which I take as a good sign. Soreness means you're breaking your body down in such a way that the recovery will result in stronger muscles, tendons, etc. And being tired after 11 miles is normal while not being exhausted is a good sing that my endurance is gradually improving.
Overall, it was a good run. As you can see, I slowed down later in the run, so that's probably where I need to improve my pacing but I also think some of that extra time comes from slowing down for intersections because when I pause the timer, the pace goes way up since I'm stationary. Then it takes somewhere around 15-25 seconds of running for that pace to get back down to where it was before I stopped the timer. During that entire time, the Garmin is averaging those artificially higher paces into the overall pace for that mile, which probably inflates the split by a few seconds, at least. Maybe something like 5-10 seconds per mile would be a safe estimate depending on how many times you stop the timer. Just a little quirk of the Forerunner. I've posted my splits and other information below:
Time: 11:16 AM
Distance: 10.92 miles
Mile 1: 8:04 (WAY too fast!)
Mile 2: 9:30
Mile 3: 9:36
Mile 4: 9:43 (uphill most of the way here)
Mile 5: 9:49
Mile 6: 9:53 (running out of steam before gels)
Mile 7: 9:43
Mile 8: 9:50
Mile 9: 9:53
Mile 10: 9:55
Mile 11: 9:35
Total: 1:44:53
Calories: 1614 (boo yah!)
I'll post a race report for the Shamrock 5K later this afternoon. I'm hoping for green beer as a post-race reward!
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