4/3/2011

Training schedule says I will do: 7 miles

I actually did: 7.12 miles*

*8.62 miles using Aubree's Bonus Mileage System, getting 1/2 mile for the wind and 1 mile for running uphill (a total of 2 miles was uphill)

Days to go until the marathon: 175

Miles to go until 1000: 926.49

Red Hot Chili Peppers song played during the run: No (When I got home I had to plug in my ipod to charge, and I decided to sort the songs on it by the number of times they have played.  I have 2 Red Hot Chili Peppers songs on there, and each one has only played once.  This is totally a Hawthorne effect.)


Today was the first run where I employed the run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute strategy.  This is advocated by some famous runner (Jeff Galloway?) and it came to my attention from my friends Aubree and Nicole independently and nearly simultaneously.  I used it in training for my 2nd half marathon, and ended up running it 4 minutes faster than my previous one despite being on a harder course.  Of course, I also trained for the 2nd one on hills and the race course ended up being easier than my training course, so I don't know that I can completely credit the walking breaks with the faster time.  But anyway, I think the theory is that by walking early, you conserve energy and are able to go faster late in the run.  I couldn't remember at what distance I started doing walking breaks when I last trained, so I just arbitrarily chose to start at a distance longer than a 10k (since I wouldn't walk during a 10k), which would be today's 7 miles.  I kept forgetting to walk, which I think is a good sign that the run felt good.  (Well, I should say the portions of the run when the wind was not blowing directly in my face felt good.  For the approximately 2.5 miles the wind was blowing in my face so hard it brought tears to my eyes, 1 mile of which is also up a hill, I kept looking at my watch to see if it was time yet to walk!)