On Wednesday I was meant to go on my long run but I had some jabs on Tuesday morning and by Tuesday evening my arm really ached so I didn’t get much sleep. I decided that Running on no sleep wouldn’t be a very good idea so I changed it from Wednesday to Thursday.
Thankfully by Wednesday my arm was much better so there were no excuses – I had to go out Thursday morning! I made sure I’d got all my running gear ready so all I had to do at 5am was get out of bed, get changed and go.
I also purposely put my phone across from my bed so when the alarm went, I had to get up. Works like a charm –-> if anyone struggles to get up in the morning or snoozes 12 times, give this a go!
I had to run 16 Miles so I decided that my goal would be 8 miles+ –-> on my last split run I realised I wanted to run more miles in the morning than the evening. The first few miles were difficult –-> it was dark and I was only just waking up! It’s also quite difficult to find roads with street lights so I ended up running the same roads quite a few times which got a bit boring –-> I cannot wait for it to get lighter so I can branch out a bit.
My pace was pretty consistent until mile 5 when I flagged. I’d decided not to eat anything before my run in case it upset my stomach so I bought a gel with me for when I needed a boost –-> after mile 5, it was definitely needed! After taking the gel my energy levels went up a little and my legs felt better, the next 3 miles went by so quickly. I realised that I was still feeling ok and I only had two miles to go until I hit double figures –-> I was so close to my house that finding another two miles to run around was extremely difficult but I managed it (even if I did have to run the same 50m a few times to get it over).
I ended up running 10.1 miles in 1:57 hours -–> an average pace of 11:43 which is 1 minute below my marathon pace so I’m super happy with this!
The splits were: 11:47, 10:35, 11:18, 12:00, 12:44 (mile 5!), 11:23, 11:06, 12:36, 12:15 and 11:33.
* It rained the entire run so when I got home I was soaked and I resembled a drowned rat. It turns out my reflective jacket is not so waterproof.
* I was also told that elevating your legs for 5 minutes would help with recovery –> I woke up today able to walk so although it looks a little weird, it works!
In the evening I decided to use the treadmill rather than run on the roads to give my knees a bit of a rest and stop me from going insane –-> I would have had to use the same roads again! I ended up running 6 miles in 69 minutes = 4 episodes of The Big Bang Theory so I was happy!
* The one good thing about treadmill running is that there are toilets nearby – I managed just over 4K before I needed the loo.
I’m starting to really like split miles and I’m quite impressed and how far I managed to push myself in the morning –-> morning runs are not my sort of thing so to be able to run 10 miles was a huge achievement for me.
* I love trying new protein snacks and this was quite tasty –-> it doesn’t taste too ‘protein-y’ and they definitely didn’t skimp on cashews.
I have a question for you –-> I normally use SIS Energy Gels but I used my protein ones yesterday and they seemed really good! What energy gels do you tend to you? If you don’t use energy gels on a long run, what do you use?
Any tips are welcome –-> I’ll be trialing my marathon nutrition soon so I’m open to any options
L x
