I've decided that I'm going to do my long runs on Saturday from now on. I had good luck with a Saturday long run last week and again today.
The Run
I parked at the Rt. 28 parking lot by the W&OD (near the BMW dealer) at 5:45. I was the second car to arrive and it was cool and a little humid. I stretched for a bit and adjusted my equipment and then started out at a little before 6:00am. For the first 2 miles I was totally alone with the deer, rabbits and birds. It was lovely. Slowly the bikers and a few other runners showed up. By the half-way point (about half a mile into Leesburg) there were people every few minutes.By the end of my run the trail was crowded with packs of bikers going both ways swerving around packs of runners, joggers and couples talking morning walks. It was chaotic and a bit scary. I was glad to be off the trail.
I ran the entire distance and felt pretty good. I focused on pacing, trying to keep my pace at 9:30 in the first half and then focused on running reverse splits in the second half. The last few miles were tough (especially the last mile and a half) but I pushed through the fatigue and finished strong.
Nutrition
For dinner last night I had a little of Handan's tilapia in carrot sauce and two slices of my home made pizza. Then I had a bowl of cereal with non-fat yogurt and dried cranberries, two squares of dark chocolate and finally a bowl of non-fat frozen yogurt. It was a lot, but I figured I needed the fuel.
The Run
I parked at the Rt. 28 parking lot by the W&OD (near the BMW dealer) at 5:45. I was the second car to arrive and it was cool and a little humid. I stretched for a bit and adjusted my equipment and then started out at a little before 6:00am. For the first 2 miles I was totally alone with the deer, rabbits and birds. It was lovely. Slowly the bikers and a few other runners showed up. By the half-way point (about half a mile into Leesburg) there were people every few minutes.By the end of my run the trail was crowded with packs of bikers going both ways swerving around packs of runners, joggers and couples talking morning walks. It was chaotic and a bit scary. I was glad to be off the trail.
I ran the entire distance and felt pretty good. I focused on pacing, trying to keep my pace at 9:30 in the first half and then focused on running reverse splits in the second half. The last few miles were tough (especially the last mile and a half) but I pushed through the fatigue and finished strong.
Nutrition
For dinner last night I had a little of Handan's tilapia in carrot sauce and two slices of my home made pizza. Then I had a bowl of cereal with non-fat yogurt and dried cranberries, two squares of dark chocolate and finally a bowl of non-fat frozen yogurt. It was a lot, but I figured I needed the fuel.
I woke up at 4:00am (eek!) and had a ClifBar and a cup of decaf coffee.
During the run I had three Gu gels (one every half hour for the first 90 minutes) and I drank most of 2 bottles of lo-cal Gatorade.
I experienced no digestive issues on the trail. And I felt like I had enough energy for the entire run, although at the last mile I was starting to run down. Maybe I could have squeezed one more Gu gel into the run...
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