The 14 Miler

I did it!  A new distance PR.  14 miles ... check!

Saturday we ventured out to Vancouver and ran the Stanley Park Seawall again (the site of last week's race).  Once again, we were blessed with ideal running weather despite the prediction for mass amounts of rain.  I'm beginning to wonder if the weatherman just likes to keep us depressed with all these negative predictions.  Anyhow, it was gorgeous.  A few sprinkles during the last mile, but so light you barely noticed.

I've agree to run at my friends pace and while it was slower than I would run, it wasn't much slower.  We averaged just slightly over a 10:00 mile.  She had figured we'd be closer to 11:00 miles, so that was really good.

The seawall loop is just under 6 miles, so we did 2 full loops and then ventured out to English Bay to finish up.  The first loop I think I talked the entire way and really it zipped by super quick.  We stopped after the first loop to swap out water bottles and make a pit stop.  It took us a little longer than we would have liked and we will try to tighten this up on upcoming runs. 

The 2nd lap didn't feel quite so fast.  I think I was running out of conversation and my friend was getting pretty tired so her part of the conversation was dropping off.  However, we actually picked up the pace in that lap and ran it faster. 

Another stop after the 2nd loop.  This one we didn't take as long.  We had about 2 1/2 miles to go and decided to head in another direction.  These last couple miles were pretty slow.  I would have liked to have run them faster, but stayed with my friend.  Our intention was to check out a place that makes traditional spanish hot chocolate ... apparently they made a spicy variety that quite interested me ... however, the business had closed down and we were out of luck.

NOTES

(this is for me to reference later)

Consumer prior to run:  handful of pretzels, 2-3 cups water
Consumed during run:  2 water bottles filled with Gatorade, few pretzels, 1 halloween candy (yuck)
Immediately after run:  chocolate milk & a banana
Approx 1 hour later:  2-3 cups water, 1 cup pasta with spaghetti sauce and mozzarella

Stomach issues:  none (yay!)
Energy level during run:  Really good, never felt like I bottomed out
Muscles:  Pretty tight.  Felt it start to tighten around 11 miles.  Ongoing problem, not just this run.

Aftermath:  Relatively little muscle soreness.  Hamstrings a bit tight in the afternoon.  Achilles area very tight by the middle of the night - ongiong problem. Exercise induced headache came on about 3 hours after run.  Killer!  Took two tylenol and a 15 min nap.  Would like to find a solution to this problem.

Things to try on next long run:  pre-run meal

So there ya go, longest distance to date.  I nailed the 14!  Next week taking on 16.

Keep Active!

Heidi

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