Okay, okay. In terms of marathon training it wasn't that long. But it was hard.
I ran close to 16 with the first 1:25 in Z1 and the last 50 mintues in Z2. Z2 is hard work, man. Argh. As always, I didn't take enough water/Gatorade with me, and I had to stop at a store to re-stock the old fuel belt.
Truth is, I can't stand taking all four bottles on the belt when I run. The belt is too big for me (it's my husband's) and it just bounces in such a violent and annoying way. With two bottles, the bounce is manageable. But, of course, two 8 0z bottles when you are going out for 16 isn't enough--especially in summer--especially in mid-morning on a nice, humid, sunny day. Anyway, I spent much of the run parched and annoyed that I was parched. The first hour I could barely hold 9:00 minute pace, and I just began to develop horror scenarios in my head: I'll never finish this race, if I do finish it will take 10 hours , my friends will kick my ass and I will be humiliated, etc. etc.
Luckily I was able to pick it up a bit after the first hour and a half and I averaged 8:10 pace for my last 6 miles. Of course, I should've been averaging that fast given that my hr was in the 150's for most of it...
I think one of the reasons I find the long runs so hard when training for this 1/2 Ironman is that I am never, ever rested going into them. I did 3 hours on the bike with a 1 hour transition on Sunday and on Monday I did (for recovery) an hour of spinning and a 1/2 hour run. Hello! Working out for more than an hour is still hard!
These plans (or those coach/gurus who write them) don't know what recovery is. Recovery is sitting your ass on the couch relishing the previous day's hard work. Anyway. Tomorrow I am supposed to swim in the a.m., then do a bike workout , then a transition run. When you train for a marathon you go hard maybe twice or three times a week--usually one speed session or tempo run, one mid-week long run, and one long, long run on the weekend. With tri training even the recovery days are hard ( I think). Spinning for an hour, even with a really low hr still is a workout! I think my body needs time to adjust. It's not happy.
Probably signing up for a 1/2 Iron without ever even have done a sprint was a bad idea. But I did! I did! I can never seem to think small. Also, let's face it. I signed up with my runner's arrogance. Biking? whatever. I am a runner! A marathoner! I can do 56 miles no problem! And swimming? I am a tres amazing swimmer--though prior to this spring I hadn't swum a yard in like 10 years. Sigh.
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