Sunday, July 8, 2007

Longest run to date!!

Today was a gorgeous day for a run. So I set out in the early afternoon for a nice, slow, long run.

I have had this mental block for a while now about longer distances. I don't know why, but seven miles sounded plain scary to me. That's why I stopped after a 10K distance on my last long run two weeks ago. My body could have done seven miles last time out, but my mind was afraid to.

So I knew I would have to take a leap of faith to get past that mental issue. In my mind, I broke today's run into two segments: a three-miler and a four-miler. That seemed easier to grasp and conquer than seven miles, you know?

In the end, running seven miles seemed easier than I thought it would. Thank goodness!!! I had it all worked up in my mind that it was going to be awful and I was going to die, blah, blah, blah. I did have to stop at the hospital (funny, huh??) once to refill my water bottle and use the restroom, but other than that, it wasn't bad at all. Well, except around mile six I totally bonked for a while and I didn't bring any Gu with me. I did take some before I left (Chocolate Outrage, which wasn't too icky), but I wished I had something to refuel with later on. Oh well.

And now I have a question for you, dear readers. I have an amphipod bottle that I love for short runs, but I know now that for longer runs I will need something that can hold more water and fuel. What kind of fuel belts do you guys have, and do you like them? I didn't think I would ever consider something like that, but I don't want to have to stop and refill my bottle every time I go farther than 10K.

Oh, and I totally need to get some new, smaller running pants because these (my trusty ones that I wear for races) fall down every time I run now. I am tired of having to keep pulling them back up where they belong. I am just lucky they haven't ended up around my ankles yet.

Today's stats:
Distance: 7.01 miles
Time: 1 hour, 21 minutes, 52 seconds
Pace: 11:41 minute/mile

Splits:
Mile 1: 11:37
Mile 2: 11:28
Mile 3: 11:20
Mile 4: 11:36
Mile 5: 11:51
Mile 6: 12:00
Mile 7: 11:53
.01 mile: .04 (10:25 pace)

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Great job with the seven-miler! We knew you could do it.

I'm a gear-geek, so I have a few things. Probably my favorate for long runs is a double-bottle pack from Fuel Belt. It doesn't bounce around much and holds quite a bit of liquid. It also has a pocket for keys, cell phone, etc. I like it better than the Camelbaks because it is much easier to keep the bottles clean or simply replace them. It is also easier to refill the bottles during a run or race. Happy shopping!

J~Mom said...

Hey!!! Congrats on seven miles!! Your pace looks awesome throughout!! WOOHOO!!

I have only ever used my handheld..it was much cooler when I trained for the half and didn't need much more. I need something larger though. But I do like your idea of refilling...I didn't think of that. Maybe I will run by Home Depot to refill. :>)

Great job again!

Marcy said...

I have a Nathan one that I got from runningwarehouse.com It's fine as far as no bounce but I'm going to have to get one that holds more for longer runs. I have to set out extra bottles at my door and run back to get more (hi, annoying LOL)

Congrats on the 7 miler!!!! ;D ;D ;D

Randy - Maniac #788 said...

That is an awesome 7 mile run. If we run in town we know the local watering holes that are runner friendly, including bathrooms and we try to make those. If we try longer runs out along one of our lakes we drop Wal-Mart bags with water and gatorade in them at key places. We've learned to put tags on them stating they are not trash and please do not throw away, a runner will be by to pick them up. On occasion we discover we have a bottle missing but rarely the bag anymore.

I do know that someone makes a multiple bottle fanny pack that seems to fit close to the body without much bounce. I'm considering something like that for my upcoming marathon runs.

Laurel said...

That's so awesome that your shorts are falling down! That sounds weird, but you get my point.

Congratulations on the 7 miler!!! You will be doing a Half Marathon before you know it, I can tell.

I hated my fuel belt at first, but I wore it for my 13 miler on Saturday with only the 2 bottles in the back full and it didn't bother me at all. I made the run a lot easier to be properly hyrdated.

Mom tried decaf once said...

psst over here now!

Nikki said...

Great Job Michelle!

Breaking it down so your mind can wrap itself around the 7 miles was smart!!

I'm no help as I can't run that far and have not come onto thos issues of hydration.