half marathon – Me and the Road

And I ran my first half marathon this Sunday. I ran it in 1h51 but wanted 1h45. It was a nice experience, especially because I had never raced over 10km before.

It was nice morning here. At the start, it was 17C and I placed myself not exactly where I wanted. It was crowded and I lost half a minute over the first km. I planned to run at 5:00/km and could do it up to the 12^th km. After that I started to feel a little slow and maintained a 5:15/km over the next 4km.

After 16km, my average pace was near 5:10/km. Then, everything became extremely difficult. The legs didn’t respond and to complicate ever more, a blister on my right foot started to slow me even more. The temperature was higher, not sure how much and the pain from the blister increased a lot. At the 18^th I slowed down and walked a little, at the 19^th I had to walk again to relieve some of the pain. Then I dragged myself over the last 2km to finish the race. My last 4km were done at 6:00/km on average.

Like I said before. It was a nice experience. I just wanted it to be a little easier in the end. I’m now planning to race a night 8km race on April 30^th. It’s exactly a cycle away from today. I’m also considering another half marathon in August. Let’s see…

My training is going really well this week. After a not so god race, my first two 1h runs this week were at a faster pace while keeping the same heart rate. Then I had the 2k session. I would normally run in the morning, but I had a commitment an Thur morning I couldn’t postpone, so I had the session at night. And it was a great session. I felt it controlled all the way, even had to slow down a bit to complete each rep at programmed pace.

My watch doesn’t record max or min heart rate and this time I wanted to know my min heart rate, in order to see how well I was recovering between reps. During the 90s rest, I kept my eyes on the watch and memorized my heart beat a few seconds before start running again. The result was good. It was a clear indication that I was recovered from felling sick the previous week.

Mar 31st – 5x2k @ 4:20/km – day 03

Rep	Time	AHR	RHR	MinHR
01	08:40	168	153	134
02	08:39	175	155	136
03	08:40	175	159	141
04	08:39	175	162	144
05	08:35	177	163	148
Tot	43:13	174	158

AHR: average heart rate, RHR: average rest heart rate

This session, done at night, was easier than when I do it in the morning. Next time, I’ll do it in the morning, as I want to adapt better for my early runs.

This Sat morning I had my 2h long run. Normally I run at an easy pace that is between 6:20/km – 6:30km, but this time I was a bit faster, ran it at 6:00/km. The best part, my average heart rate was the lowest so far, 154.

I hope things continue well the coming week and I’ll be in good shape for my half marathon on April 10th.