15 Miles on the W&OD Trail

I woke up early today and drove a few miles to a parking lot by Rt 28 and the W&OD Trail.  I wanted to avoid starting and stopping my run in Herndon.  My town sits on top of a hill and I really dislike starting my runs downhill and finishing them uphill.  That, and I wanted some new scenery to make my run fresh.

I made a point of trying to run the first half slower than the second, just as they recommend doing at the marathon.  "Don't be a hero in the first half, don't be a wimp in the second" is what they say.

This was supposed to be a LSD run... Long, Slow, Distance (I recognize that Long and Distance is a bit repetitive, but I've read this term on runnersworld.com so it must be official).  I wasn't good about the "Slow" part.  I ran too fast in the second half and pooped out on the last mile.  I ended up walking a bit in the final half-mile.  And my average pace was almost my goal pace for the marathon and that certainly isn't "Slow".

I think what happened was that I got excited about seeing a good half-marathon time and forgot I still would have 2 more miles after that.  Stupid arrogance.

FYI, my stretch goal (as stated in my first blog entry) is to run the marathon in under 4 hours.  In order to do that I need to run approx. a 9:08 minute mile.  Today's run averaged 9:12.  My half-marathon (13.1 miles) time was 2 hours, 20 seconds.  While I'm happy that I can do that, I shouldn't have been doing that today.

Nutrition... I made a pizza last night and Handan made a chicken/tofu/veggie stir fry.  That gave me a good load of carbs and protein.  Before the run I had a banana and a Clif bar, and during the run I had two Gu gels at 45 minutes and 75 minutes.  I went through about 35oz of Gatorade during the run, but I think I could have (should have) stopped at the available water sources for more hydration.  This is something for me to focus on in the future.