The turtles have their cake (but the Moose eat it)
Chalk up another 20 for the Blind Moose. And as a reward, Mike's wife sent along turtle cake to aid our recovery. With my mouth full of the heavenly chocolate, I said, "Mike, you sure picked a good one!"
Let's talk turtle. Turtle candy that is. It appears the ingredients include pecans, chocolate bars and caramels. (My mouth waters just typing caramel). Now add this to a cake. Now die.
Mmmmmmmmmmmm.
Mike casually dropped the turtle cake bomb around mile 7 so we sprinted the 13 miles back to the car. Just kidding. Ha! Instead I ate some white bread to tide me over. Otherwise the run was rather easy. But my HR vs. the pace was a little off from recent long runs but not by much. Still...
To avoid the storm we had an early start at 6 am. The email broadcast to the other local runners produced no takers. So again, it was just the two Moose wandering around in the pre-dawn darkness. The sun rose (though we couldn't see it) around mile 3.5. When the sun rises mid-run it produces what I call the shortening effect. You see, what happens is when the light appears the mind is tricked into thinking the run has just begun - even if you're already halfway into the run. Marc will vouch for this.. So in this particular instance, the 20 miler was shortened to 16.5 miles. Easy!
I encourage everyone to give it a try and report back.
Another positive this morning was the dramatic rise in temperature during the run. We started off in the bitter cold but ended in the beginnings of the snowstorm which means snow temperature! If you'd like to see what cold looks like, take a peak at Mike's photo of me after we finished today.
************************************
End of week #8
Still building the foundation. I'm rather pleased that I've been able to stay consistent this long. It's because I'm being patient (pats self on back). Another gentle increase in mileage over last week of 1.7 miles. It's keeping things 'easy' if I can use that word. Eventually, my mileage should be 'fatiguing' but not yet. Keeping the lid on the number of faster workouts per week and increasing the mileage slowly is keeping things on track. Only ten more weeks of this build then it's on to the hard stuff. Here's a snapshot of the last 8 week's mileage:
Week 1: 58.57
Week 2: 60.2
Week 3: 61
Week 4: 65.7
Week 5: 67.3
Week 6: 69.2
Week 7: 74.3
Week 8: 76
Here is a snapshot of the long runs:
Week 1: 13.3 miles @ 8:00 pace / 145 HR.
Week 2: 15.1 miles @ 7:59 pace / 149 HR.
Week 3: 17 miles @ 8:19 pace / 144 HR.
Week 4: 17 miles @ 8:33 pace / 138 HR.
Week 5: 17 miles @ 8:48 pace / 134 HR.
Week 6: 20 miles @ 8:23 pace / 141 HR.
Week 7: 20 miles @ 8:17 pace / 140 HR.
Week 8: 20 miles @ 8:29 pace / 141 HR.
I'm not sure when I'll increase the long run by a mile. Perhaps soon. But as long as it is not necessary to increase the mileage (I'm still doing that via my easy runs during the week) I'll hold off.
Let's talk turtle. Turtle candy that is. It appears the ingredients include pecans, chocolate bars and caramels. (My mouth waters just typing caramel). Now add this to a cake. Now die.
Mmmmmmmmmmmm.
Mike casually dropped the turtle cake bomb around mile 7 so we sprinted the 13 miles back to the car. Just kidding. Ha! Instead I ate some white bread to tide me over. Otherwise the run was rather easy. But my HR vs. the pace was a little off from recent long runs but not by much. Still...
To avoid the storm we had an early start at 6 am. The email broadcast to the other local runners produced no takers. So again, it was just the two Moose wandering around in the pre-dawn darkness. The sun rose (though we couldn't see it) around mile 3.5. When the sun rises mid-run it produces what I call the shortening effect. You see, what happens is when the light appears the mind is tricked into thinking the run has just begun - even if you're already halfway into the run. Marc will vouch for this.. So in this particular instance, the 20 miler was shortened to 16.5 miles. Easy!
I encourage everyone to give it a try and report back.
Another positive this morning was the dramatic rise in temperature during the run. We started off in the bitter cold but ended in the beginnings of the snowstorm which means snow temperature! If you'd like to see what cold looks like, take a peak at Mike's photo of me after we finished today.
************************************
End of week #8
Still building the foundation. I'm rather pleased that I've been able to stay consistent this long. It's because I'm being patient (pats self on back). Another gentle increase in mileage over last week of 1.7 miles. It's keeping things 'easy' if I can use that word. Eventually, my mileage should be 'fatiguing' but not yet. Keeping the lid on the number of faster workouts per week and increasing the mileage slowly is keeping things on track. Only ten more weeks of this build then it's on to the hard stuff. Here's a snapshot of the last 8 week's mileage:
Week 1: 58.57
Week 2: 60.2
Week 3: 61
Week 4: 65.7
Week 5: 67.3
Week 6: 69.2
Week 7: 74.3
Week 8: 76
Here is a snapshot of the long runs:
Week 1: 13.3 miles @ 8:00 pace / 145 HR.
Week 2: 15.1 miles @ 7:59 pace / 149 HR.
Week 3: 17 miles @ 8:19 pace / 144 HR.
Week 4: 17 miles @ 8:33 pace / 138 HR.
Week 5: 17 miles @ 8:48 pace / 134 HR.
Week 6: 20 miles @ 8:23 pace / 141 HR.
Week 7: 20 miles @ 8:17 pace / 140 HR.
Week 8: 20 miles @ 8:29 pace / 141 HR.
I'm not sure when I'll increase the long run by a mile. Perhaps soon. But as long as it is not necessary to increase the mileage (I'm still doing that via my easy runs during the week) I'll hold off.
posted by Andrew at 11:15 AM
3 Comments:
Nice run Andrew. I'm looking forward to adding time and miles to our long runs.
Did you have to describe that cake in such details? I was content and happy, until I read your entry, and now I can't get the thought of caramel out of my head!
Nice running, btw.
That's a real nice progression and sounds like you feel pretty good about it.
Personally, 20 miles is enough, a bump up would come based on counting days back from your target race. Which is?
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