Notes
This seems to happen frequently — in the first 5 minutes, I feel SOOO fatigued and a bit sore from a solid week of training and I assure myself that I will run very easily ... then, by mile 3 or 4, my pace gets down to about 8:00 min/mi without any conscious effort to speed up. Then, I worry I won’t be able to sustain it and will blow up ... but instead, there are some 7:40-ish miles towards the end that feel just fine.
Ok, my HR is not in the 130 range. My average HR was 137, which means it crept up into the mid-140s for much of the second half. I don’t know if it would be better to slow down and keep HR closer to 130 on my long runs, or if I’m at a point in the training cycle where I SHOULD be doing this (i.e., to recruit type IIA fast-twitch?). I ran by “feel” today, but that hasn’t worked well for me in the past, and I don’t want to destroy the fitness gains I’ve made so far this cycle. Good question for SD_BH and others?
17.3 miles total. Muggy, but not hot or sunny. I drank plenty of water AND had a Gu (salted caramel) at the 10-mile point. This seemed to work well enough. I still have no clue how to fuel for a marathon, or whether it makes a difference; however, I am fairly convinced that I have not properly hydrated in the hours leading up to my last several marathons, and I will definitely remedy that in the next one ... if there ever IS a next one.