Saturday 26 March 2011

Urine the colour of Lucozade...

Yesterday was the last but one tough run of the training plan, and the longest tempo run of the plan too.

Here's how it went, in numbers:
  • 2 miles warm up @ 8:45 pace
  • Mile 1 @ 7:27
  • Mile 2 @ 7:26
  • Mile 3 @ 7:28
  • Mile 4 @ 7:28
  • Mile 5 @ 7:28
  • Mile 6 @ 7:27
  • Mile 7 @ 7:29
  • Mile 8 @ 7:29
  • Mile 8.5 @ 7:24
  • 2 miles cool down @ 8:54

Generally quite pleased with that. At 7:27 a mile the average pace isn't a great deal lower (if at all) than previous half marathon paced tempo runs and I could really feel it in that last mile and a half but the splits are by far the most consistent and, bottom line, it was just below target pace of 7:30 for the toughest tempo in the plan.

Afterwards I really felt shattered. My glutes and quads were sore (and the former had been when running), I struggled to summon the energy even to shower for a while. Having said that, my glutes were sore before I even started and the tiredness was dehydration.

That last point is a good one to remember ahead of Paris. I thought I drank well enough on Wednesday and pre-run yesterday. When I got into the car afterwards I drank 200ml of water and had the same amount of protein shake when I got in, as well as a mug of roibos tea. Yet I only peed once in several hours and felt so exhausted in the last stages of the tempo and cool down but also afterwards. Assume I wasn't quite as hydrated as I thought and 12.5 miles in warm weather at half pace makes for a lot of water usage one way or another.

So, special attention to hydration in the 2 days before and a steady amount of water during - even if it means losing a bit of time for pee breaks!

I may learn more on this from tomorrow's marathon pace run.

3 comments:

Jessica said...

I used to be great with hydration but have slipped a little of late. I keep leaving bottles of water around the house to remind me to drink...hopefully with some warmer spring weather I'll stop drinking so much tea (albeit decaffeinated) and go back to water.

Good luck with the next run!

Maria said...

YEah hydration is so important! I am trying to make sure I drink more as I do feel it when I havent. I am also hoping that there will be portaloos on the way around as I think if I am out for 5 hours + I might need to visit one!

Unknown said...

Prize for the grossest title goes to you! But good point, it's easy to forget about good hydration! I'm quite good with it usually but I really feel it when I'm not!