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February 26, 2005
2:08:54/160
Hal Higdon writes in Marathon, "Most coaches feel that once you reach 16 miles, you're in long run territory." According to that definition, I ran my first long run today.
Higdon's novice marathoner training program only includes two more long runs before the race itself, an 18-miler (29 km) and a 20-miler (32 km).
The pace today was an even endurance jog, just over 4:57/km (8:02/mi) for 26 km, which includes 6 stops to drink. That's the right speed if I believe Greg McMillan's training calculator. It didn't take me long enough to meet Benji Durden's criteria, but I'll worry about that later this year when it warms up.
An hour before I left, the temperature was -8 C (less than 18 F). It warmed up quite a bit as I ran, but I didn't see any ice melting.
My legs got tired after about 18 km. I was dressed for the temperature but not for the wind. After about 15 km, my tights were soaked. No problem on the gentle downhill, south-facing, sunny half of the laps I ran. But each time I turned around, I had an insistent cold breeze on the sweat covering my uninsulated legs. Hard to run smooth with that happening. Quite painful as well.
Posted by Mark at February 26, 2005 04:59 PM
Comments
You wrote that 4:57/km equaled 8:02/mi. If I use 39.37 inches equals one meter, then I get 4:57/km equals 7:58/mi. A 5:00/km equals 8:02/mi using my figures.
Posted by: Dana at February 27, 2005 05:00 AM
You're right, Dana.
I've been using the wrong value, 1.62 km/mi, having gotten mixed up between 1.609 km/mi and 1/1.609 mi/km, which is .62.
Posted by: Mark at February 27, 2005 02:59 PM