So yesterday I began my "tapering" weeks. Last week was 12 miles in the awful heat and humidity with a tight hamstring (it was...awful). 11 min miles with many many stops to stretch, plus stomach cramps...I almost feel like this is a big science experiment:
1. how much do I eat before the run, and when?
2. what can I eat in the days before (i.e., I've decided no beans on Thurs or Fri)
3. how much water to drink the day before and in the morning so that I don't have to pee one mile in...which I've had to do every day except for the day that I took cold medication with pseudoephedrine.
4. drugs. none? Aleve?
Yesterday I felt MUCH better on the 10.75 miler, but still my pace was 10:47, a ways off of my (good-weather) goal of 10:00. Can I make that up on the race? "The Complete Book Of Running for Women" says so...says that I should be running my long runs at 11:09, and my half should be around 2:08. I'm not so sure.
I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm either going to GET a good time or HAVE a good time, but not both (especially if it's 85 degrees like last week! then it will be neither).
So we'll see. Maybe if I don't hit 2:11 this time, I can run another one and get it later. I'm not so sure how well the 39-year old body likes distance though. I think my 2010 goal is going to be more of a speed goal. My best 5k thus far is 27:19, I'm thinking I set a goal of 25:00.
2 comments:
I'm sure you have already seen this, but the New York Times had a great article on running :
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/health/27well.html?_r=1&em
I like the part about how a human can run longer than a horse!
I hadn't read that, and it was very interesting! I didn't start running until I was an adult.
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