Sunday, May 5, 2013

Long run Saturday

I haven't posted much lately about how my long runs have gone. I still do a long run every weekend provided I don't have a race. I don't really have a long distance race coming up for a while but I like that coach puts a long (double digit) run on my schedule for the weekend because it keeps me conditioned for the distance plus I enjoy that big calorie burn (haha).

I had 10 miles on my schedule this weekend. Most of my long running crew was going to be gone for races or other commitments so I was prepping myself all week for my 10 mile solo run and keeping my fingers crossed that it wouldn't rain. Thankfully on Friday evening I got a text from one of my friends that a group was meeting to run at 8am in Knoxville Saturday morning. Yay, I wouldn't be running solo! And after watching the weather report before bed it appeared we may miss the rain too. Double yay!

The run itself was great. We had great weather and missed the rain. I was also able to test run my new Camelbak Charm...

Hubby got this for me recently and got a really great deal on it. I am going to be headed into marathon training soon and have yet to find a hydration belt that truly doesn't bounce or cut the yucky skin/flab on my stomach (hey 90 lb weight loss) so much that I feel self conscious about it. So, I thought this would be a good system for me this summer for long runs as well as marathon training. I went through training before with a Nathan handheld but find it really annoying to run with anything in my hands.

The Camelbak fit great and has a pocket that fits the gels I need to carry. I worried about chaffing so I wore a short sleeved shirt and that wasn't a factor. I'm not sure how that will go once I use it wearing a tank top this summer but I suppose I'll find out. I noticed early on that the sloshing water was a bit annoying but a friend helped me with that by showing me a little trick to get the air out of the water reservoir and that worked great. No more sloshing!

I only put 2 bottles of water in it but it holds 50oz which seems like it'll be enough for a really long run. I don't usually drink a lot while running and wouldn't normally carry water at all for a 10 miler on the greenway since they have water fountains but I have a feeling that may be different this summer.

As far as the run, it went well. My easy/comfortable pace these days is between 9:30-9:45 and if I have to I'll slow down to 10:00. I take gels every 3-3.5 miles on training runs since that is what the plan is for longer races. I took 2 gels yesterday. I took the first at 3 miles and the second at about 7 miles. It seemed to work ok for me but I really didn't want to take either one due to some slight stomach issues.

I had not done a double digit run since the marathon relay some 28 days ago. I was happy with how this 10 miler went. Splits are as follows:
10:01 9:40  9:41 potty break and gel
9:42  9:46  9:43 potty break
9:31  9:42  9:29  split from group to finish my final mile
9:31
total time 1:36:53

And the rain held off until I got in my car! I hope you all had a great long run this weekend.

1 comment:

  1. That is an awesome run and CamelBak! Congratulations on such a HUGE weight loss... I don't think I realized you accomplished such a huge feat!! :)

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