Dry Run - 13 Miles @ Marathon Pace...

This run had me nervous a good bit of the week - I knew I could do it, but I also knew I'd have to feel like I had a certain amount of freshness left at the end of it if I'm going to hold the pace for the whole marathon.

The FIRST plan called for 7:26 miles but I decided to shoot for 7:20-7:22, rationalizing that my first half will need to be a tiny bit faster than the second.

So that I didn't repeat last week's goof, I took 75% of the insulin I usually take with breakfast, set my basal rate to 1/3 normal and wore the pump. (SIDE NOTE: pump fit PERFECTLY in front pocket of Race-Ready shorts. In fact, Race-Ready shorts rocked and I rarely noticed all the crap I was carrying.)

I didn't give myself any pressure on the first mile, letting it be a warm-up. Still, I came through at 7:30, and by then the legs were ready to go. For most of the run, I clocked off nice and even miles - 7:18-7:20. Definitely an effort to keep it under control on the early going and something that I'll have to guard against in two weeks.

Aside from the warm-up, I had a rough 12th mile - 7:28 in a head-win with a hill, and I let myself ease up on the last mile to kind of be a cool down - still came in @ 7:27. Averaged 7:22 for the whole thing (faster if the wu/cd are discounted).

As far as how fresh I am, it's hard to say. No, I'm not 100% fresh, but then again, if you'd stop me at the mid-point of any race, I wouldn't be fresh, either. I don't quite feel like I had 13 miles of steam left, though I'm confident I had at least half of that. Hopefully, a full taper and adrenaline will carry me the rest of the way.

I took a 37 g. e-Gel at the mid-point (6.5 miles) and finished the run with a perfect blood sugar of 95, which is a tad lower than I'd like to be in the "heat of the battle." But in a race, I would've slammed a second e-Gel at that moment, so I think I'm in reasonably good shape there.

*

Congrats to Eric, Eric's wife Melissa and Christina! I work with Eric and Christina and the 3 of them ripped through the Marine Corp Marathon this morning -- Christina just missed 4 hours, coming in 22 seconds late (which I know she'll be upset about!). Melissa was just behind her at 4:03 and Eric went from a non-runner to a 4:24 marathoner in less than a year. Great job to all of them!

Comments

  1. Eric Gervase6:34 PM

    Thanks buddy... It was pretty brutal. But, you've put in all the hard miles. I'm sure you are gonna do awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous10:17 AM

    Your great BG control on this run should be a huge confidence booster for your big run! Looks like you were right on track.

    Week and a half to go - You can do it, and I.... well, I look forward to reading about it! :-)

    ReplyDelete

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