Saturday, August 28, 2010

Long run after work on Friday

With two kids' birthday parties this weekend (including my son's first) I knew that I just wouldn't have time for a long run on either day. I figured that my options were either to run before work Friday or Monday, or after work on Friday. I wanted to get it out of the way so Friday after work it was. I left work at 4:30 and went down to the new fitness center in the basement of my building. It's been open for about 2 weeks but they have towel service available now, so it's a viable option if I'm going for a run and don't want to fuss with my regular gym a block and a half away.

I got changed and filled up my two large hand-bottles and stuffed my pockets with gels, powder, and S-caps and was on my way by about 4:50pm. Just for reference, the picture above is what I had to carry.

A few words about nutrition... I was trying out a few new gel brands/flavors:

Clif Shot (Double Espresso) - The flavor was horribly bitter and I had to choke it down quickly and swish my mouth out immediately to get rid of the after taste. They worked well enough and delivered the pep and energy though.

Power Gel (Chocolate) - This had 1 shot of caffeine in it and the flavor wasn't very good for chocolate. I prefer Hammer Gel for flavor. I didn't get the rush that the Clif Shot gave me but they worked as well as most other gels.

Hammer Gel (Apple Cinnamon) - They're very sweet and taste exactly like the filling from a Hostess Apple Pie to me. They're just calories in a sweet form.

I ran with 100 Kcal of CarboPro and two Nuun tablets in each bottle to start. That lasted the first 13 miles or so and I refilled at a water fountain with the same thing in one bottle and 100 Kcal of Heed in the other bottle. I only had 1 Nuun tablet for each bottle this time. The CarboPro w/ Berry Nuun tasted fine but the Lemon/Lime Heed with a Lemon/Lime Nuun tasted awful. I dumped most of it and just drank water instead. Maybe those two versions of Lemon/Lime aren't compatible.

I took one S-Cap every hour and never cramped. I'd say that my nutrition went really well on the run. I watched the time closely and had a gel every 30 minutes which did the trick and never left me hungry. With the constant stream of CarboPro in my bottles and the Gels I was taking in between 250 - 300 Kcal every hour. This worked out great for me. The CarboPro isn't sweet and doesn't thicken the water so you forget that you're drinking it.

The route:
I had 22 miles on the schedule after my last long run of 18. I normally don't jump up 4 miles between long runs but I'm on a tight schedule. I'm looking at a 26 mile long run in two weeks. I set out around the streets of Redmond as I would if I were running my long Tempo loop Clockwise only this time I wasn't pushing the pace much. I wanted to run at least 7 miles every hour with 7.5 as a stretch goal. I wound my way around the streets with the big downhill and soon after the matching uphill until I reached the NE corner of the Bridle Trails at the 4.5 mile point of the run. I knew that once I left the Bridle Trails that it'd take me 3.5 miles to get back to work. This meant that I had to run loops around the trails until the Garmin hit at least 18.5 miles. The perimeter of the trails was about 5 miles so I ran a figure 8 route twice which adds another 1.4 miles (0.7mi Powerline trail that bisects the park twice per loop) for two loops and then ran about 3/4 of a normal perimeter loop with a few side trails thrown in. I hit the north exit of the trails at 19.25 miles, a little more than was necessary. From there I ran North to Old Redmond Rd. and followed it East and went down the long hill past Grass Lawn Park and made a right onto 148th ave which took me almost all the way back to work. I stopped the Garmin at 22.8 miles in 3:05:52. I made my goal of hitting 21 miles in just over 2:59 thanks to the fast descent on miles 20 and 21.

The run: I felt pretty good. I took easy at the start and eased into a pace that drifted between 7:45/mi and 8:40/mi. depending on the terrain. I definitely had some low and high points while running. My iPod wasn't charged so I left it at the gym and ran without music or podcasts for the first time in a while. I had a few rough patches where my hips and quads were hurting but within 10 minutes I'd bounce back and return to good form with little trouble. I'm excited by this and hoping that I can run a slightly more conservative race at the 50K so that I'm not dead with 5 miles to go like I was at Mt. Si.

The run put me over 900 miles for the year. Not a great total so far but a pretty good comeback from where I started out.

Time: 3:05:52
Dist: 22.8mi
Avg: 8:10/mi
Garmin's wacky altitude math: 9231' (I'd be surprised if it was even 3000')


As an addendum to my last post, this is what I get to wear for my Tendonitis (though not when I run):

Yep, I'm wrist brace guy.

2 comments:

Jen Feeny said...

I've never heard of doubling up the Nuun with the Heed and CarboPro before! That doesn't bother your stomach at all? When I use Nuun I can only take a half a tablet in my water because the flavor is too much. I guess that's why I stick mostly to water during training and races.

Great job on the run and if it makes you feel any better, I had messed up my ulnar nerve and had to wear a brace like that from my hands up to my arm pits at night! I looked like a mummy! LOL!

nrmrvrk said...

I doubled up on the Nuun on accident. I had put a tablet in the bag of CarboPro the night before when I packed it and then put one in my bottle before remembering that I already had one in the powder. The flavor was good. I think I prefer the double Nuun flavor to single. If you're sensitive to the strong flavor, I'm guessing you stay far away from super-flavored stuff like Accellerade and regular-strength Gatorade.

If you mostly stick with water, what do you use for electrolyte replacement?

Bummer about the full-arm brace. I'll keep that in mind when I'm lazy about wearing mine. Thanks!