20 Miler Long Run Report (1/21/08)

Friday night, Patti asked me how far I was going to run the next morning. I said “Don’t ask’. She said “20 miles?” I rolled my eyes and nodded yes.

During the week, I did some brushing up on proper hydration during Long Runs. As is usually the case, I came across lots of opinions with a wide range of answers. Most of the advice suggests that there is no set amount you should be drinking. It depends on several factors like: how much you sweat, the temperature, your weight etc. In order to determine the proper amount of fluid replacement, you should weigh yourself before a run and after a run to determine how much you need. That didn’t do me any good with Saturday’s run. Fortunately, I found some general guidelines.

The most consistent guideline is to take in 8 oz of fluid for every 20 minutes of running. For last week’s long run, I took in 34 oz over 3 hours. If you do the math, I took in less than half of what I should have. So now, I am really starting to think positive. Not only do my Long Runs qualify as hill workouts, I’m running in a dehydrated state. I can surely improve.

As Saturday morning came near, I tried not to think about the fact that I would out running for close to three and a half hours. I tried not to think about reaching mile 17 and knowing I had 3 more to go. I just planned the run as best I could.

For my provisions I got three 16 oz bottles of water and a 24 oz bottle of Gatorade. I also got two gel packs for the run. I had my peanut butter on toast and Gatorade about 60 minutes before the run. I loaded up my stuff into a back pack and was ready.

The plan was to run to the 1 mile mark with my fluids and dump them in a safe spot. I would then continue to the 2 mile mark and turn around. This gave me a 4 mile out-and-back that I would repeat five times. I would be passing my aid station every two miles. I checked the Ocean Drive Marathon web site and the aid stations will be similarly placed. I would drink water until mile 9, then switch to Gatorade. At miles 13 and 17, I would take a gel pack with water. I had 72 oz of fluid with me.

After I ate and went to the bathroom at home, I weighed myself, dressed and headed out the door.

It snowed a little on Thursday and the paved trail where I run doesn’t get much sun. I was hoping it would be clear. There were some icy spots, but it was not a factor.

When I am alone, I talk to myself quite a bit. On the run, I would be alone for well over three hours and the I-Pod can only entertain me for so long. So I alternated between music and conversation with myself. As you can probably guess the topic was running. In particular, I was breaking down the 20 miler into the five segments I had planned. Through conversation during the early part of the run, I decided that after 4 miles, I should feel like I was just warming up. After 8 miles, I should still feel good, but expect to be tired. At 12 miles, I should expect to be hurting, but still strong enough to keep up the pace. Finally at mile 16, I should be hurting some more, but with no fear of the last 4 miles and no inclination to quit or shorten my run.

I went about my business of running and listening to music and then at the end of each 4 mile segment I would interview myself in order to evaluate how I was feeling. I also took close tabs on my pace and would discuss that as well. Halfway through each segment, I would exercise my brain and predict my time for the next turn around.

Generally speaking, I was pretty close in predicting how I would feel along the way. My goal was to run at between 10:15 and 10:30 pace. That is not much of a slow down from last week, but I would certainly not attempt to run the first 12 miles at 10:00, like I did last week. I don’t have exact splits, but it is something close to this.

0-4 miles @ 10:18
5-16 miles @ 10:28 (even pace throughout)
17 – 20 @ 10:04

The total time of 3:27:00 comes out to a 10:21 pace.

Aside from the obvious pain and throbbing of every bone and muscle from my feet to my waist, the last 4 miles was a beautiful experience. They were the fastest 4 miles by far and I could have gone on further. My breathing was fine and I was talking to the end. It turned out to be a pretty good plan and I think it was well executed. Now I can take a week off from Long Runs.

When I got home, I dried off and weighed my self. I lost four pounds during the run. I consumed all 72 oz, so I will plug that into the fluid replacement calculators and see what it tells me. For someone of my size, I think a 4 pound loss for that type of run is OK. There was no dizziness and no tingling of the fingers.

Speaking with my brother John, later in the day, he commented that now I must feel as if I could actually finish the marathon distance. I agreed. 20 miles is a milestone for me. I think that if this were the beginning of my taper, I would feel good about breaking 4:20 or 4:15 for the race. But this is not the beginning of my taper. I have seven weeks until the taper and 10 weeks until the race. And 4:15 is not my goal. My goal is 3:59:59 or better. That is about 70 seconds per mile faster than I ran this 20 miler.

But rest assured, two things will be different on 3/30/08. I will be racing, not training and I won’t be nearly as talkative, at least not out loud.