A milestone reached!

It turns out that I can run 15K.  I did it yesterday.  It took almost two hours, but I did it.  Here’s what it looked like:

I am convinced that this run was possible because of Seanna‘s sage coaching advice.  She knows that I am wedded to the numbers on my GPS watch and I’m always trying to beat them.  She explained to me that if I try to kill my records every time I run, I will not progress.  Instead of building my body up, I am breaking it down.

Seanna’s mantra to me is to slow down.  Take it easy.  (But don’t be fooled…she’s making me run up and down hills and sprint and stuff, too.)

Until yesterday, the farthest I could run was 13.3K.  My body refused to go further.

The plan for this 15K attempt was simple.

1. Get enough sleep: I got about 7 hours.  Less than I wanted, but I felt good when I woke up.

2. Run before the heat comes: I was running just before 7 am.

3. Run at an easy pace: Keep it to an 8-minute kilometer.  Slow.

4. Fuel up during the run: I ate some beans at 45 minutes.

I also ran with a Camelbak to stay hydrated without having to carry a water bottle (as I usually do when I do shorter runs…more on that in an upcoming post).  The beans require a good few gulps of water to wash down.

For the first 10K, I felt strong and had lots of air and energy.  At around the 10K mark, my hamstrings and glutes started to become increasingly angry with me.  My feet became sore and tired, as though I’d been standing on them for a long time.  That said, at no time did I feel like I couldn’t reach 15K.

I finished about half a kilometer from home, so had a nice cool-down walk.  I immediately rolled my IT bands and put in yoga stretching session.

Then I waited for the pain.  And waited.

I was a bit stiff for a good part of the day, but by late afternoon, I was feeling good and had no pain to speak of.  This morning both of my glutes are vaguely tender when I sit.  Otherwise, I’m no worse for wear.

I am feeling confident that on September 20th, I will have a good race.

Between now and then, lots more training…and one 17K run.

We’ll see. We’ll see.