Saturday, September 19, 2009

1/2 Marathon Training: 6 Mile Run

Our 1/2 mary training plan called for a run of 6 miles today. Annie and I woke up early again - 5:30 - and went for the run.

One of the things I have been trying to figure out is my nutrition needed in the morning before my runs. If I am doing a distance of over 3 or 4 miles I need to eat something before the runs, but I can't have too much or it will weight on my stomach and make the run difficult. Annie has been having a slice of toast and seems to be doing well with that. I have been taking a packet of GU about 10 minutes before and it seems to be working and another one around the 40-45 minute mark of the runs. Each packet is 100 calories. I also just picked up some Gatorade powder and am going to mix a diluted amount into my water to help with some extra carbs and electrolytes (I sweat big-time). Now usually nutrition isn't that big of an issue with anything under 5 miles but once you get over that distance it becomes important so I am going to experiment over the next few months until I get it right!

Anyways, this mornings run went very well. We ended up doing 6.02 miles in 1:00:20. That is a 10 minute pace. The training program called for a "Conversational Pace" during the run which to me is roughly an RPE of about 2-3. I am pretty confident I can do about a 9 minute pace during the race.

Tomorrow I am getting up early and driving to the "sticks" do do a long bike ride. I am going to do the normal 26 mile course I have done in the past and if I have the energy and the weather holds up I might do it twice.

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

1 comment:

  1. Jeff:

    When I worked at REI, we sold a meal bar designed to be consumed before exercise like you described. I think it was called a "Bear Bar", but I just Googled that and I didn't see it.

    Anyway, it tasted like wet socks, kinda like fruit cake, but it was meant to be easily consumed and digested. You might poke around their nutrition racks and see what they have.

    I'm sure you enjoy having a sport that you can share with your bride. That's gotta be fun!

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