Saturday, June 13, 2009

Unchartered Territory

Long run this afternoon. I went out with the intent of going for a 2 hour run - the furtherst I had ever gone before was the half marathon distance so it is all unchartered territory.

In fact I had mapped out this puppy yesterday. Up Mt Eden Road, along Newton, down Ponsonby, Curran, past the marina, through the viaduct harbour, up Queen, over Grafton Bridge, through the domain, through Newmarket and then cutting through Epsom for home. Interesting mix of scenery from suburban, marina, urban, park, and back to suburbia.

Optimistically figured on 5min/k pace so 2 hours = 24 km. Took a 600ml water bottle with me.


Think the mapmyrun.com markers are off a bit in the google earth export...

First 12km were OK and was probably ahead of time.

The climb up Queen Street was a bit of a grind, could feel pace dropping from about 16km through 20km but for some weird reason felt a bit better from 22km through 24km.

24.1km / 2:02:14 / 5:03min/km

Pretty close to the target pace - but probably started too fast.

I don't think dehydration was too much an issue, as I was drinking from the bottle through out. Probably running out of energy a bit though.

Calves felt ok, my feet were more an issue feeling sore towards the end - not used to the distance (and current pair of shoes needing replacement soon).

I was pretty much done by the end. Right now the marathon would chew me up and spit me out, still I suppose thats what the 4.5 months of training are for :). I have a lot of respect for people that get out and run anything over a half marathon - it's tough!

No run tomorrow or monday, although I'll go for a swim.

3 comments:

Mike said...

Great run. Glad the calves are holding up.

Andrew is getting fit said...

Not too long from now you'll look back at this distance and think it's short!

Andrew(ajh) said...

That is a great run mate ... I wish I was able to do those distances again ... I used to be able to once!