Good evening everyone. Well as excited as I was about my tempo run on Thursday, I am frustrated and disheartened by today's long run.
Since all of my typical routes were snow/ice covered, I laid out a 3.6 mile loop through Bethel to run. When I started out at 11:45am it was a balmy 17 degrees with a windchill of 6 degrees. The first 2 miles went well and then I must have hit a wall. When I finished, I was 15 minutes over my projected time. I was sore, frustrated, winded and disheartened. I had not run that bad since I started training for the Flying Pig Half Marathon a year ago and debated whether or not I should try the full marathon.
After some cool down time and time in my tree stand, I found a little bit of solace in the run. I thought about a few of the differences about my run today. The temperature was the second coldest run to date. The coldest was my first "long" run which was only 4.2 miles and it was not much colder (I believe 16 degrees with a win chill below zero). Today's run included 3 fairly steep graded hills (not long but fairly steep). I have not done any hill training to date. My long run next week includes a 1 mile 25-30 degree hill, a 0.2 mile 30 degree hill and a 0.25 20 degree hill. Yes, I am insane. Also, since i was in a hurry to meet a friend to hunt, I did not do my 0.25 mile cool down walk. Finally, I think I overdressed for the weather. I was hot by mile 2 and had sweat through everything I had on by the end of the run.
So - I officially signed my commitment to run today. I am officially registered for the 2009 Flying Pig Marathon, 2/May/09 (91 days from now). I have put my money where my mouth/shoes are and now cannot back out (or Laurel will have my head for wasting the money to register). So there is no turning back now.
Finally, I am looking for suggestions on how to work on increasing my stride. I am 99% sure that part of my poor time today was a result of not extending on my stride. When I run outside I feel like, and know, I do not get full extension when I run. I am not sure if it is me, the fact that it is cold, or the Under Armor cold gear compression pants. If you have any suggestions/ideas of things I can do work on this, please leave a comment.
Tomorrow is a short (3 mile) easy run and then off to watch Arizona put a smack down on the thugs from Pittsburgh.
Take care, stay warm.
In Him,
Phillippians 4:13
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