T‑minus eight days, we are a go for liftoff

In try­ing to make the deci­sion whether to run the US Half Marathon in eight days, I took the last chance to do a longish run to try it out before I have to take it easy with short­er dis­tances for the next week. I ran rough­ly eleven and a half miles at a 9:40 pace. I don’t think I’ll be beat­ing my 2004 time, but for most of the 11.55 miles I felt like I could main­tain the pace indef­i­nite­ly. Every time I looked at my heart mon­i­tor I was run­ning between 160 and 165, which is real mod­er­ate for me, a lit­tle less than 80% of MaxHR. If I can not push too hard, I can def­i­nite­ly squeeze out anoth­er mile and a half to fin­ish the 13.1 miles next Sunday.

11.55 miles in 1:51:48. That’s the longest I’ve run all year, and my first trip into dou­ble-dig­it mileage. I’ve done sev­er­al 9‑milers, but I was still wor­ried about the leap up to 13.1. I’m not wor­ried any longer.

This Sun­day I have a nice flat 5K I can do. With the weath­er we’ve been hav­ing it should be a beau­ti­ful morn­ing for it. It’ll be fun to cut loose a lit­tle and not wor­ry as much about keep­ing a sus­tain­able pace, and the com­pa­ny on club runs is always welcome.

One Reply to “T‑minus eight days, we are a go for liftoff”

  1. Just read­ing that makes my
    Just read­ing that makes my body hurt, and my lungs threat­en to go on strike. The best I could ever do with the exer­cise was a 5 mile bike ride, and that was at a leisure­ly pace…when I was in a more hour­glass like shape.

    Also you have suc­ceed­ed in get­ting that Nick Cave song stuck in my head.

    The End

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