Yesterday I ran 12 miles. When training started, I didn't time my runs, I just ran and hydrated every 2 miles as that is about the recommended 20 minutes since I averaged a little less than 10 minute miles. Now as the mileage as been increased and I run along the FDR where there aren't really street markers, I have resorted to keeping a timer on my watch. Originally I kept a countdown of 20 minutes to continually repeat on my watch, but with the noise of NYC, I would often not hear it beeping, so now I clock my runs.
As I have, I noticed that runs over 8 miles, I do drop to slightly over 10 minute miles. I was dicouraged by this because in high school, I ran Cross country and we would make fun of people who would run 10 minute miles or slower. Now, I'm that guy. But, cross country we trained to run 3.1 miles, not 26.2. So, since 8 miles is closer to 3x that, I'm okay with it. Last week, my 11 mile run, I kept at around the 10 minute mile pace. Since this was a busy/good week with many of my friends finally being available to hang out, I didn't run Monday-Wednesday, which is one of the longest breaks I've taken. It was a total of 4 days, as Sundays are always my days off. Thursday, I again hung out with my friend and even had three beers. I was able to complete the 8 miles due on Thursday, but it was 2 minutes slower than normal. I was okay with this because you're supposed to drink a 20oz of gatorade 1.5 hours before running and I hadn't, and the beers probably didn't help.
Yesterday though, when I got to 10 miles, I noticed I was 10 minutes off my normal 10 mnute mile pace. I couldn't understand, I didn't feel like I was going any slower but the time doesn't lie. The odd thing was, the next 2 miles I kept the 10 minute mile pace. So the last 2 miles I was on pace, but somehow I had dropped off during the 10 miles. This made no sense to me. They say you can go 2 months of idleness without losing your cardiovascular endurance, so 4 days should have been fine. On one hand, I was able to complete 12 miles, on the other, I dropped the pace pretty significantly. I will continue with it as the goal was never time, but next saturday is my 2nd big milestone...the half marathon (13.1 miles). I wish I was in top confidence for it....hopefully my time for the half marathon is similar to my time for the 12 yesterday, as that would mean, I'm back on track. I'll keep you posted.
