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| The nudge! |
Six and a half hours sleep is not good preparation for a 20 miler! I got up at 5.55 am to put in the long run as I needed to be back by 9am to get Amy off to hockey. Had a feed of some porridge and toast and managed to get on the road by half past. Raring to go - not. It was mild this morning and the path on the canal was a dry as it has been for some time. this meant that I did not need to navigate round the many puddles on the towpath. The run scheduled was a tough one and so it proved. 10 mile easy at 8 min pace with a 10 mile blast back home at marathon pace.
Put out a sedate pace to begin with and it took 3-4 miles before I decided to buckle down to get back on the 8 min pace. Just as I was going onto the canal I was passed going in the opposite direction by this old guy in a flourescent bobble hat. He must have been 60-70 and was running in a pair of tight and shorts and a day glo bib. It cannot have been much after quarter to seven. Great effort from the old yin. Inspirational. Few runners out this morning despite the conditions.
Once again I noticed the wind with me as I ran into Kirkintilloch. Not a good sign. Running into the wind at marathon pace was going to be tough. Managed to hold onto the pace for 3 or so miles but I knew that I was on to a losing battle pretty early on. Settled into a good rythm but it was always a greater effort than it should have been. A 7.15 min mile at mile 15 on the exposed stretch along to Bishopbriggs Sport Centre was hard to take and from there it went downhill. There then followed an issue with the achilles which flared up leading to miles of 7.22 and 7.30. It eased off again to allow a 7.07 on mile 19 which gave me some salvation. There was some cardiac drift at the end as I noticed my HR reduced from mile 16. Hitting the wall? All in all a tough morning. What can I put it down to other than the fact that I may not have the bottom line speed to do a sub three marathon. (1.) Too hard a run on Wednesday (2.) Extra days rest would have been good. (3.) The wind (4.) Achilles (5.) No hydration on the run. Are these excuses or reasons? Probably a combination of all of them. Never gave myself a chance to go at sub marathon pace. At my stage a sub three is at the absolute extreme of my ability and I think that everything will have to line up for me to achieve it including training, nuitrition, hydration and course. It will be painful. Am I prepared on the day to give it everything? Am I prepared to push the Central Governor to the limit?
Talking of nuitrition, I tried the caffeine gels on the run. they certainly did a job and difficult to know at this stage if they have more benefit than the normal gels. They do have a more bity consistency and are not as easy to swallow as the straight gels. The flavour was passable. Will need to give them a couple more outings befor I am sold. demolished my recovery drink as soon as I had finished. How will I pull up tomorrow?
Amy ran in the Glasgow Schools Cross Country and managed to qualify for the Scottish Champs in placing in the top 50. Well done to her. She had wanted some tips for the race so I told her about I told her about the Central Governor and she gave me a text after she had finished to say that she pushed the Central Governor to the limit and her legs were dead. Later she said that she had given a girl a nudge out of the way in the race and the girl had fallen. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree!
Splits - 8.32 - 8.17 - 8.11 - 7.50 - 7.45 - 7.38 - 7.51 - 7.59 - 8.04 - 7.57 - 6.45 - 6.54 - 6.56 - 7.00 - 7.09 - 7.15 - 7.22 - 7.32 - 7.07 - 7.46
Numbers - 20 miles - 2.32.04 hrs - 7.36 pace - 149 HR avg - 169 max HR - 2774 Calories - Cadence 83.5
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