Yesterday marked the return of the need for speed!
Since our half marathon is looming (3 and a half weeks and counting!), we decided to mix up the sprinting a bit this week and do a more long distance endurance sort of speed workout. Instead of doing a series of 400’s at a 6:30 pace (more details in this post), my friend Jillian proposed we do the following workout, starting from her house:
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Run to the track (1.5 m)
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1 lap warm-up (0.25 m)
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800 at ~7:30 pace (0.5 m)
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Recovery at ~8:45 pace (1 m)
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800 at ~7:30 pace (0.5 m)
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1 lap easy warm-down (0.25 m)
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Run home (cool down) (1.5 m)
Total distance = 5.5 miles
It was a great workout! We figured it’s better practice for the race to maintain a speedier pace for a longer distance vs. doing super fast but short sprints at this point. An 800 is two laps around the track, and for each of them my pace wavered between 7:15 and about 7:45.
Here are our overall splits (the speedier 0.5 mile 800’s are combined with shorter recovery jogs in the mile-by-mile splits, so the times are slower, but you can see our second 800 was probably faster than the first):
- Mile 1: 8:37
- Mile 2: 8:26
- Mile 3: 8:35
- Mile 4: 7:58
- Mile 5: 9:05
- 0.64 nubbin pace: 9:22
Our average pace was 8:38 — we ran 5.64 miles in 48:43. I’m getting excited for the race — I can’t believe it’s so soon!
While we’re talking about running — let’s chat about fuel. I have 11 miles on the docket for this coming weekend, and I never really know at what point I should start fueling on my long runs. I’ve heard that anything over an hour is a good time to add fuel, I’ve heard anything over 10 miles… basically, I have no idea. When I was training for my first half marathon, I remember eating sports beans a couple times during the longer runs but I found it hard to chew and breathe at the same time! 🙂 During my actual race, I ended up just having Gatorade at the water stops (and wearing my CamelBak for a constant water source).
I brought this Hammer Gel along with me on our 10 miler on Saturday, but didn’t end up feeling like I needed it and was worried it might mess up my stomach, anyway.
So, for those of you that are runners — any advice as to at what distance/duration you should start incorporating fuel into long runs? Also, any fuel favorites/ones to avoid?
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p.s. I revamped the fANNEtastic food Facebook page yesterday! Go check it out, and be sure to “like” it if you’re on Facebook and haven’t already, because I’ll be doing a fun giveaway later today on my wall to celebrate the new look 🙂
