Exciting times for you, blog reader! I’ve decided to dedicate one post a week to the dreaded long run. There will be stats (unimpressive ones, to be sure), weather details, mental (and emotional) state before and after, and what the hell, let’s throw in physical details too. Sounds fun, right?
This being the inaugural post, there will need to be a little backstory and basic info.
As a runner of medium-distance races, training plans will all have one day dedicated to a long, slow run. This is where you build up stamina and general fitness on your quest. Shorthand is that you run in what’s called Zone 2. Training zones are based on heart rate, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being all-out training. The back-of-the-envelope way to calculate these zones is to subtract your age from 220, which gives you your MaxHR. Then, the zones are figured as a percentage of that number. See the image below if you’re curious.
My Apple watch will monitor my heart rate during exercise, and there is a screen that shows which zone I’m currently in. Now, don’t get all up in my comments telling me how imprecise the watch is or how I should get a specific calculation on my MaxHR. I’m not looking to break world records or even become competitive in racing, so close enough is close enough for me.
Okay, enough of the boring stuff; let’s get into the really boring stuff.
- Temp: 43-50
- Cloudy over to sunny
- Distance 14.01
- Pace 11’20″/MI
- AVG HR 129
I was not feeling it before the run. Nora has a running coach, and I’ve been getting my distance off her plan, and I disagreed with the plan. We have our first half of the year in two weeks, and the idea of going over that distance seems weird to me, but I’m just Jp, not a professional. But it’s fair to say I went in with a bad attitude.
The running itself did nothing to dissuade me. It was rough. Everything started to hurt a couple of miles in my legs, feet, and arms. EVERYTHING!
Fitness-wise, it was easy (as was the plan). Never out of breath, just the way I would hope.
I stopped a couple of times to pee, eat some fruit snacks, and start a new audiobook. The last stop at 4 miles to go I seriously considered just stopping the run and walking the rest of the way back. But I didn’t want to tell Nora I didn’t complete the task. For sure, this isn’t meant to imply that she would be disappointed in the news or anything. It’s just I want to attempt to be worthy of her. (We’ll get into this at a later date, I’m sure.)
I did it, though. As typical, I received no satisfaction from the accomplishment, no runner’s high; at best, I’m relieved it’s in the past. Now it’s just after 1 pm, Nora is on her 14 miler, and all I want to do is eat.