This Sunday was my fourth long run – or at least what I would consider to be long – a whopping 24 miles. Still a few miles short of marathon distance, but that will come in time. Things I have learned so far:
- The location of all public potties around town. Thank goodness for summer construction and campgrounds
- My new favorite clothes all have flatlock-stitched seams
- Probars are amazingly satisfying after a run (organic and unprocessed). Franken-food is gross
- Running slower than a 00:09:30/mi pace makes my knees ache
- Clif Shot Bloks are yummy and entertaining to chew on, but are extremely difficult to open in the rain or while sweating profusely
- Currently listening to Greg Niemeyer’s Art23: Foundations of American Cyberculture (fall 2006 – UC Berkley) available for download along with other open courseware podcasts.
There are a few things I’m wondering about right now that I think will make longer distances more comfortable:
- Need to find something that is easily digestible, but with more energy than Cliff Bloks for any runs longer than 20 miles.
- Buy runners’ lube – rain sucks.
- Currently using Superfeet inserts and love them, but would custom orthotics make a world of difference?
I’ve set a goal to run the Equinox Marathon here in Fairbanks this fall and have got to work more elevation in to my runs if I want to avoid dying during this race. This graph below shows about all of the elevation I can handle right now (measurements courtesy of my little Garmin Forerunner):
As you can see, the highest point on this run occurs in mile 9 and is a mere 637ft above sea-level. The image below is a profile of the Equinox Marathon route, which begins climbing around mile 8 and continues considerably higher – peaking well above 2000ft at the top of Ester Dome:
Just looking at the line graph makes me sore. The plan right now is to spend most of August training on Birch Hill located on a smaller ridge line here in town, but much closer to home, and run a few times over some of the actual race course closer to 15 Sep.
A summary of yesterday’s run:
