Oct 9, 2009

When is 3 miles greater than 9 miles?

First of all, catching up on a few items. This is the weekend for the Chicago marathon and I plan to run on Saturday afternoon/evening so that I'm free Sunday morning to get up and watch it. Now the question is do I get up even earlier at 3 AM to watch the World Half Marathon championships until 4 AM or so and then get a few more hours of sleep before Chicago starts. Sounds like something I would do. Also adding complications: forecast for subfreezing temps and snow tomorrow. What's up with that?

My Fedex tracking number showed me that Garmin received my yesterday at 8:10 AM. Not bad. Shouldn't take them too long to replace a battery and send it back. I've been upgraded to hopeful. Side note: when I explained to my wife the dilemma with my watch and the proximity to the marathon her first response was "Buy a new one." I declined but what a great wife.

Finally on to the question in the title. I wasn't up to running my normal MP run yesterday, 2 miles warm up with 9-10 miles at MP. So I threw in a new workout for something different. I went 10.05 miles very slowly, 9:18 pace and then 3.35 at 7:22. Throughout the run I struggled with the fact that I was kind of wimping out. I mean my normal MP workouts are 11-12 miles in under 90 minutes. How can 13.4 in about two hours be better than that? Well, it really can't but it does have this advantage: in my normal MP runs I'm done in less than 90 minutes. In this run I didn't start running fast until after 90 minutes. May not be as good but I'm consoling myself with that anyway.

All in: 13.4 in 8:48.

4 comments:

Glenn Jones said...

It's all about being on your feet. You get the *most* benefit from the long slow miles - builds up aerobic fitness.

And I think you're quite right about the 50/50 rule. Reminds e of the 90/90 rule to project management: The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the budget. The last 10% takes the other 90% of the budget.

Unknown said...

You ARE a die-hard runner if you're getting up that early to watch both marathons! I want to watch the Chicago Marathon but we'll see...

Lindsay said...

i would definitely take that "excuse" and run with it. (i don't think it's much of an excuse anyway - sounds like logical reasoning to me)

i'm glad your wife had such a great response. i had to be talked into splurging on a garmin myself!

Beth said...

Sounds like a pretty good work out to me. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your Garmin. Your wife and I think a lot alike. You have a lot of time and money already invested in your training. If you can afford it, get a new one if you have to. Hey, your wife can use it when your's gets back!