Went for 10...did 9

9 miles
2:11:32 (14:36/mile)
Temp: 55ish Humidity: Low, like 40%ish

Trying to pull this run apart. What went wrong?

• I did the run at lunch time (didn't eat beforehand, had waffles for breakfast hours before).
  
• Thought I drank enough H2O last night & this morning, guess not.
  
• Beautiful day, 55ish but WINDY!
  
• I ran around the track a half mile before I noticed I hadn't hit "START" on the Garmin, duh, bad omen?
  
• I am still nursing a cold (now with a cough)
• I missed my 3 miler in the middle of the week, so I suspect that too had an effect (my legs and gluteous were getting sore from the pounding early, like Mile 3ish, not typical)...

I dunno. Not a confidence builder with the Philly HM in 3 weeks. Hmmm.


The good:

• Well, I ran 9 miles straight. That's kind of cool, and I need to remember that.
• I did a butt-kicking HILL around Mile 5, still a new experience for me, oh yeah. I had this sick smirk on my face, telling myself "I LOVE HILLS. I LOVE HILLS" over & over, yeah!

The bad:

• Labored.
  
• Nature called loudly at Mile 8, hence the 9 (not 10) miler
  
• My mind was not in it (I just wanted to quit from the beginning, caught myself saying "What the heck have I gotten myself into2 signing up for this HM, what was I THINKING?" Definitely didn't have my head on straight today)
• Stood in the rain for two hours at Rutgers yesterday after traipsing a few miles to & from car. And RU lost. Probably not great for the cold, eh?
  

The ugly:

• Went for 10, made 9. Am doing 13 in 3 weeks. Not optimal.

One more chance next weekend as I see it. Because the following weekend I'll be in Disney with the fam. The weekend after that is the big day.

Perplexed..doubting...question marks...

Doubts...

Spent a good half hour talking with my phys ed teacher colleague at school today. He is resuming regular exercise after about 3 yrs off (quit coaching for arrival and caring of newborn, house built, etc., just real life), he mentioned that he is getting a stress test and full physical before resuming exercise, a good idea for anyone. Told him about my normal stress test last week, which made him say "Yeah, I should have picked up on this when you first told me about your heart rate stuff...the way you're running--you're anaerobic!" AAAAAahhhhh, sounds as bad as "overpronator" does to the uninitiated...

He basically told me that I am not building endurance or really burning fat if I take such frequent walk breaks. That I am not maintaining for a good 15-20 min at an aerobic level, approx. 50-60% of my max HR (which is approx. 183) and that ultimately, I am not doing my heart any favor by racing it up and down for every workout (speed workouts would be different, but they would be shorter in duration and not every run). I told him I really dig my one minute walk breaks every 3 or 4 minutes, and he told me to find another way to reward myself, lol, to eat dessert or something:-) But he would recommend running straight through.

He also told me that--and this is scandalous!!--he does not stretch before exercise nor does he advocate that with his students: rather, he does "dynamic" stretching--gentle rolling of ankles, moving of joints, maybe some--we called them this in dance class--grapevines ("dynamic" stretching as opposed to "static" stretching, which is the traditional stuff I do before & after a run). And yep, stretching after is a good thing (phew, I'm doing THAT right at least).

He was not prechy or judgemental, he gives me all the props in the world for getting out there and starting to run! He's just giving me his solicited thoughts on it all. I respect this guy. He was a track coach for years, before that he ran all kinds of races, 10Ks, etc., his dad was a track coach before him...the guy knows his stuff. He is clearly on the other side of the philosophical spectrum than the one I've been reading--fine, the world is more interesting with differing opinions by knowledgable folks, would be boring if we all only ate chocolate ice cream and all that. But it's completely at odds with the Galloway training (advocating frequent walk breaks) I am doing. Crap. The doubts are creeping in again.

I run 30 minutes tomorrow, and I will run--slowly--straight through. I've done it before. And I will continue to read up on this. Can't imagine running 13.1 miles straight through. But maybe it can be done. But I'd better take some more baby steps before, well, running a [Half] marathon.