« Goals | Main | Video capture »
November 28, 2004
1:16:32:91
I'm still deciding what I aim to run next year, and was weak yesterday, so I only ran back and forth to Chapareillan twice today, without extending the run at all.
My pace, less than 13.5 km (8 mi) per hour, is too slow for such short runs, but wouldn't be so bad if I could keep it up for 42.195 km (26 mi, 385 yds). At this pace I only feel a little out of breath at the hill crests between here and Chapareillan. The time includes refuelling at the halfway point, which takes about 45 seconds. I figure if I run for more than an hour I ought to drink something along the way. In a marathon setting, I'd probably be able to continue to make forward progress, even if only walking, while drinking something. At home I don't want to take my water bottle with me to Chapareillan.
This week I ran in running clothes, rather than sweats. When I started, the temperature was 4 degrees Celsius (almost 40 Fahrenheit). That's cold enough to feel chilled until I've run for 15 minutes, almost all the way to the point where I turn around in Chapareillan. The entire first quarter took about 18 minutes. The thing is, you finish in that direction on a long, fairly steep downhill drop. It's easy to get going quickly while hardly breathing fast.
Just before the halfway point, I stared having shoe troubles again, this time with my regular shoes. The front of my left foot hurt, as though the shoe were too tight. I tried loosening my laces. That helped a little for a while, but didn't completely resolve the problem.
Then I tried something Dana suggested during his visit, running down the center of the road. My shoe problems disappeared. Only problem was that running down the middle of the road doesn't work very well when there's much traffic. It breaks... well, I won't say my concentration, because I'm not really concentrating. I guess I could say it breaks my flow.
Maybe I should run along the Isere. I don't like the Isere route up here by Pontcharra, however. The path is too lumpy. Another possibility is running on bike paths. There's one in Pontcharra that I've never tried on a bicycle -- too short -- but perhaps for running it would be okay. The advantage with Chapareillan is that it's close by, so I don't have to run more than about 35-40 minutes without taking a drink.
Posted by Mark at November 28, 2004 02:51 PM