Week 7, Key Run Workout #3

Scheduled Workout: 15 miles @ MP + 30 sec/mile
Weather: Cloudy with Flurries, 33°F, 87% Humidity, Wind: From W @ 6 mph; feels like 30°F.
Total Run: 14.5 miles in 1:54:44 min. @ 7:30 a.m.
Average Mile Page: 7:53 min/mi (including 3 x 1:00 min. walking "breaks")
Course: A new USATF's Map It! route, 14.5 Canal Suburban Run, prepared by yours truly!

Pre-Run Permutations: It certainly felt odd to be greeted by snowflakes this morning,after three days of 60+ degree weather and becoming acclimated to wearing shorts.

While a few minor details (Clif Shot Bloks rather than traditional gel) of this morning's run will stay the same, the most important things will (hopefully) remain consistent, especially with a return to a disciplined use of a run-walk-run strategy. If all goes as planned, I will enter into my first walk break shortly after passing the Edgewood Ave. entrance to the Erie Canal trail way (by the JCC) which would be the five mile(-ish) point. Then every ten minutes, I will stop for a one minute walking rest. Mile 7 will take me along a previously un-run portion of Monroe Avenue than I have previously included in a route. (This is a good thing as I seek to extend the variation of routes in an effort to keep this whole long-slow- distance "thing" fresh.)

Post-Run Reflections: My run went remarkable well, and I felt as though I have gotten myself back on track relative to my training. A few highlights included:

1. I hit my first one minute walk "break" (not really a "break" in the sense that I stopped, but that I slowed to a brisk walk in order to take some water and a half blok) at almost exactly the five mile mark.

2. After twenty more minutes of running I took my second walk-break, beginning roughly at the the first entrance to Pittsford Plaza going West on Monroe Avenue. At this point (about eight miles in) I felt pretty capable of finishing the fourteen-and-a-half training run.

3. At the intersection of Highland Avenue and Clover Road (about 2.5 miles following my last stop), I took what would be the last walk-break. I could have squeezed a fourth walk in, but that would have come with less than two miles remaining so I though it better to plug on at a consistent pace.

Now, about an hour later, I feel pretty good and though there is some lingering achiness, I'm confident this too will pass and be avoided with the breaking in of a new pair of shoes which I purchased yesterday.

Just another little something necessary and new...

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!