I am really not liking winter marathon training, let me just say that first. Not only that, but my garmin 220 is losing charge way too quickly, and I am pretty sure it started back in January when the cold weather started. I've always charged it to 100% after each run, no matter where it was at. I am pretty sure I could run 15-18 miles with it starting at full charge and ending around 60-75%, not the case anymore. A 10 mile run will nearly set it back to 30% from 100%, and this morning it nearly died on me.
I got up late, at 5:30 AM... my phone is completely trashed - back in September or October I dropped it and nearly smashed the screen, it's been barely hanging on since and now the screen won't come on, it just blinks like crazy. I'm going to have to take it in and hopefully someone can repair it. I guess my alarm didn't go off. I got up, once again put tons of layers on but I chose not to wear a mask. It was 25 degrees out with a feels like 19, with 5 mph "every which way" winds.
Since I was doing a 3.2 mile loop, I decided to put my bottle of water and perpetuem mix in the mailbox, I would just stop on each loop and take a few gulps. I did the math, and I needed to run 5-6 loops to get to 20 miles. I expected this to be tough as there are 3 really good sized hills, and they aren't easy. Let me tell you, this was an interesting run..... for a loop.
First loop: miles 1-3.2
Nothing interesting, I felt stiff and stuck and constricted in the clothes, I was really hating winter and all these layers. Especially as I was wearing my hydration pack too (not sure why as I was doing a loop, I could've just stuck a bottle or two of water in the mailbox and a couple energy gu packs).
Mile 1 - 10:11
Mile 2 - 10:07
Mile 3 - 9:40
Second loop: miles 4-7
I decided around mile 4 or so to turn down another street and make the loop a little larger this time, giving me about 4 miles instead of 3.2. I was starting to feel a little looser, but I was still dreading the hills - I know they make me stronger but I still hate them.
Mile 4 - 9:30
Mile 5 - 9:40
Mile 6 - 9:33
Mile 7 - 9:12
Third loop: miles 8-11
On this one, I decided to make it a tiny bit larger with an extra .25 miles to it. I turned down another road and so I was able to stop at the gas station and use the bathroom to pee. Things were going well, I was on the 3rd loop which is probably the most I've done on this loop. My legs were definitely feeling the hills though, but I was enjoying my music and being out there so it seemed all good.
Mile 8 - 9:17
Mile 9 - 9:32
Mile 10 - 9:14
Mile 11 - 8:53
Fourth Loop: miles 12-16
Things were going great, I figured on the math that this loop would give me 15 miles and one more loop and a little configuring would give me that final 5 which would total 20 miles. Then the dreaded happened - at mile 12.3 my garmin started blinking "low battery".... are you freaking kidding me!!!! I only need like 8 more miles to reach that golden number and now this stupid thing is threatening to die before reaching my goal (I am still at the stage where I need this validation, this proof that I did in fact run "so many miles in a certain amount of time. It doesn't matter what I know I ran, it matters what the watch says dang it). I was extremely aggravated, I was tired and aching at this point and the idea of being out running when this thing dies... not knowing when it dies, or if it will save my run... it just had me really annoyed.
Through all this, I decided to push it to 16 miles. It was already 9:30, and I was certain Cameron and Dorian were up and I needed to just finish and be pleased with 16 miles.
Mile 12 - 9:03
Mile 13 - 9:21
Mile 14 - 9:12
Mile 15 - 9:07
Mile 16 - 9:01
So I ran 16 miles in 2:30:35 with an average pace of 9:24 min/mile, elevation gain of 372 feet and a loss of 373 feet. I really was expecting more like 500-800 but I guess this hilly route just isn't quite that hilly.
This gives me a total of 51 miles for week 11, better than the week before but not as good/great as week 9. We've got some sort of arctic storm today through Monday and then rain through Monday to Wednesday before things start warming up on Thursday. I really hope that winter will be done at that point, I am tired of wearing so many layers of clothes, I just want to wear shorts and a sports bra, or a tee shirt at the most.
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