Week 11 Key Run #3

16 miles! OMG!

So aside from that one time I ran-walked 19 miles, this is the farthest I have ever run. And run it I did. I don't think I really walked any of the hills (850 feet elevation gain), although perhaps I have forgotten. And I completed the run right on target pace: 10'22" with a goal of 10'22" to 10'37". Hmm... that might not be right. I ran to 16.5 miles on my NikePlus for good measure, and I mapped it to be around 16 miles. But that would make my pace 10'41", or slightly higher than my target pace. Oh wells. It does include a few minutes of stopping to pull my water bottle out of my backpack. I really must get a bladder.

I ran the Lamorinda Trail Loop on the other side of the hills here. Turns out to be more of a bicycle loop than a runner's loop. Many of the miles in the first half were sidewalk-less, so I just ran in the bike lane, which was rather canted in places. Gorgeous countryside though, and I plowed my way up another slow, steady hill.

The second half of the loop was lovely: the Lafayette Moraga Regional Trail, a paved path not even in view of the road most times. If I were to do it again, I would just do an out and back on this trail, which could be 14+ miles.

I'm not gonna lie - the run was rough. I didn't even look at my mileage until I hit 8 miles, which was nice, but then when I got on the Regional Trail, there was a gradual uphill I was not suspecting, and I struggled a bit. Stopped for a drink and a bathroom break and plodded onward, luckily toward a long, gradual descent. I settled in nicely, until about mile 15.5 when there was suddenly another hill! It was short but fairly steep, and boy it was a struggle. I finally quit running at 16.5, satisfied that I had probably actually run 16 miles, and walked slowly through a lovely mist toward the BART station. My muscles were very angry. I was very tired.

I had only eaten one pack of sport beans plus a few leftovers from an old bag - probably should have fueled more, especially since I had no sports drink. I came home and took my anger and hunger out on Matt (sorry!), but felt better after I had some food in me. I was fairly exhausted the rest of the day and my calves were angry on the SF hills. Last night I posted to facebook that I couldn't imagine running another 10.2 miles.

However today I feel fully recovered - no muscle aches or pains at all. And suddenly I feel like maybe I can do more miles, because obviously I had something left. (I guess that's how running gets you...) I must work on my refueling strategy though.

Only two more runs longer than a half marathon: 18 miles (2 weeks) and 20 miles (4 weeks), with two 13ers and two 10s to round it out. It already feels like I'm getting down to the wire. But so much work left to do!

(Oh, and my splits weren't really negative, but they were even - I'll take that! I made a concerted effort to keep it slow in the beginning.)