Marathon Tempo and a Hangover

We didn’t pick a good day to decide to go out and do a marathon tempo training run with John.

Target for me was:

5 miles @ 8:20 min/mi

+ whatever recovery distance I could add at the end, but at least a mile

MHFS Training Program Target for today:

• Long Run
  Dist: 8mi
  @9:47

Result:

6 miles @ 8:19 min/mi ( decided to keep going to cover the 10k distance at tempo pace )

10k in 50:58 ( a sub 51 min 10k and another PB )

7.28 miles total in 1:01.32

Last night I was invited to my cousins house to watch his team, Glasgow Rangers, play Zenit St Petersburg in the Uefa Cup Final. Not to turn down an invite, and for the chance to watch them going through all the emotions I agreed. Unfortunately I consumed a number of alcoholic beverages, more than I should have anyway, and also smoked enough to last me a year. The game ended with a 2-0 defeat, but that’s another story.

So into work this am and having agreed to the marathon tempo run I couldn’t really back out. I’d eventually run it off anyway, I thought.

Off we set and I was feeling absolutely terrible almost straight away. I discovered on reading the data when I got back that my heart rate had peaked at 185bpm within the first 0.1 miles of the run! That’s shocking. My highest recorded heart rate over all my runs before has been a peak of 179bpm and that was during a hard speedwork session. Clearly my body was not happy that I’d decided to drag it out when it wasn’t ready. That was the highest my heart rate got in the entire run. In fact, over the whole run I averaged 159bpm.

Not long after this, about 1 1/2 miles in we ran up a really steep hill, which really took it out me, but even that hill my heart rate only got up to 175bpm. I could easily have packed it in at that point and walked back to work but kept reminding myself that I had ran the distance fast on Monday, albeit at a slower starting mile pace and without the hangover from hell. A lot of this is in the mind, just concentrate and keep going.

I let the guys run about 20ft in front of me and I basically stayed about that far behind most of the time. It was more comfortable that way as I didn’t feel the need to converse and could conserve my energy to actually complete the run.

4 miles in and not far from my target I started to feel stronger, I knew at that point I’d make the 5 miles. As the 5 mile mark approached I decided that I may as well put in an extra mile to get in a fast 10k, at this point John and Roddy went off on their own and I followed a route that would take me back to the car. I didn’t want to do the 8 miles at tempo pace, and had agreed I’d cover my marathon relay distance with them. Which is a 4.7 miler. Anyway, as I was feeling good I kept going and completed the 6.2 miles before a well earned pee break was required. Not quite Paula Radcliffe style as I had no spectators and wasn’t on national tv. I then ran the remainder at an easier pace of around 9:13 min/mi and completed the 7.28 miles.

MUST NEVER DRINK AGAIN BEFORE A LONG RUN

MUST NEVER DRINK AGAIN BEFORE A LONG RUN

MUST NEVER DRINK AGAIN BEFORE A LONG RUN

MUST NEVER DRINK AGAIN BEFORE A LONG RUN

And I still have another short run tonight to do with Dylan……..

MUST NEVER DRINK AGAIN BEFORE A LONG RUN

MUST NEVER DRINK AGAIN BEFORE A LONG RUN

MUST NEVER DRINK AGAIN BEFORE A LONG RUN

MUST NEVER DRINK AGAIN BEFORE A LONG RUN