5 Long Miles

So today's marathon training was to run 5 miles. I met Elva at the Rose Bowl - which means we had to go around one full lap and about 2/3rds of the second lap.

We both had a goal to run at 10:11 per mile for a total of 50:55. I have to admit that I was a little concerned about being able to meet that goal. (Yes I know I am slow.) But we both figured we would give it our best.

Although I started with a decent pace, my legs - in particular my quads and hamstrings - felt tight and heavy from last night's boot camp class. While I was still on pace at the end of mile 2, I was feeling very dehydrated and thirsty, but had made the poor decision of running without any water.

Miles and 3 and 4 were way behind pace. Anyone want to guess what made up most of mile 3 and 4? You guessed it, running uphill (although only a slight uphill). The same uphill I ran in mile 1 took me nearly an additional 1:30 in mile 3. By this time, my legs felt like they weighed a ton. But I kept running and did not quit on the uphill. So Mile 5 left me trying to play catch up. Although I ran the last mile in about 9:25, it was not enough. I ended up at 51:45 - so missed it by about 50 seconds or 10 seconds per mile. The downside is I missed my goal by 50 seconds. The upside? It was still the fastest consecutive 5 miles I have run. Last week, I ran 3 miles at 9:40 per mile - a bit faster than today. But I had to add 2 more miles today - and did not feel as good. Excuses???

If I wanted to make excuses I could blame Monday night's boot camp class, which consisted of running a couple of miles up and down long and/or steep hills and another 150 squats thrown in. While my quads and gluts were definately tight as a result, I really cannot say it was boot camp. Cause in the end:

The Culprit? Probably dehydration

You would think that drinking 64 oz or more of water in a day should not be too hard. But for some reason, I always struggle with this. I know I am supposed to do it and somehow hours go by without drinking anything.

So looking back on today, I only drank about 30 oz of water before working out. While 30 oz. is woefully short of what I should have had - I did one better. I exacerbated the problem by not drinking any significant amount of water before noon. For those of you doing the math at home, I got up at 5:30 a.m., so that is a good 6 1/2 hours with nothing but my enjoyable non-fat latte. (Hey, it is really just about the milk and that should count for something.) Seems funny to me that the area I lack the most discipline about should be the easiest thing for me to do and really takes the least amount of effort. Oh well, I will do better next time. Thanks Elva for joining me and great job!