Whether you despise Valentine ’s Day or delight in its red hearts and romantic sentiment, one thing can’t be denied…love is in the air for this gal! Given that Cupid appears on a Monday this year, Chicken Face and I decided to celebrate this weekend, but that was after I had a hot date with another man: Mr. Dreadmill.
After a week of traveling and work, I was a bit overwhelmed at the thought of having to turn out my first 20-miler of the season this weekend. Despite the GORGEOUS weather outside (I know… crazy), my brain wanted to completely go numb and planning an interesting route was more than I cared to take on Friday night. Instead, I ran 20 on the dreadmill Saturday morning.
Ok, ok, before you slap me upside the head for doing this, there was more strategy to it than it may appear:
- This was my first 20 miler of the season and in addition to training for your pace, you have to train to be on your feet for that long. Thus, this first 20 would be used to get my body used to simply moving for that long again.
- I always go out too fast. I’m completely aware that this is a no-go, but I wanted to start testing two theories:
- Go out faster so you can “bank” some time and it will account for the “fade” as you get into the higher miles. Do you go out a bit faster to “bank” time for the end of the marathon?
- Or run at a specific pace for the entire time and see if my body still fades the same way it does when I go out a little bit faster to “bank” some time.
- My brain needed a break but I still needed to get the training in, so I rented “You Again” on my iPhone and plugged it into the treadmill. PRESTO! New movies on the personal TVs at the gym. This and “The Hangover” helped me effortlessly cruise through the 20 miles.
To my surprise, this dreadmill strategy is exactly what I needed. The chick flicks helped me giggle, I kept at a slightly faster but steady pace the entire way through, and I was able to test out some new fueling options. The even better news? When the 20 miles were up, I didn’t feel completely beat to hell. In fact, I didn’t even have to nap…BONUS! Two hours and 35 minutes later, I was ready to celebrate an early Valentine’s Day with Chicken Face.
A trip to Golden Gate Park, the California Academy of Science, surprise wine tasting and an amazing Italian dinner. My heart is complete!
Happy running and happy Valentine’s Day!
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Day 47: Rest
Day 48: 6 recovery miles
Wow, that is a fast 20-miler! You are going to kick my booty in Boston! Looks like a lovely valentine’s day
Kudos to you for sticking it out on a treadmill for 20 miles! I wish the ones at my gym had a place to hook up your ipod to watch a movie, that sounds so cool! Looks like you had a lovely early Valentine’s Day.
I have read it’s best to negative split a race (go out slower, to conserve energy to pick it up) but that usually never happens for me..maybe I do go out too fast. I try to go out a bit faster to give me slack time later in the race to compensate for fade at the end. Sometimes it works out nicely to go out a bit faster because you end up surprising yourself, feeling better and being able to go faster than you think!
Happy Valentine’s Day, love your dress it’s super cute. Glad you had a great run! I wish I could convince myself to do 2 miles on the treadmill without wanting to cry. I think it’d be good for me, training wise, but i’m still mentally blocked by the darn thing
wow, you were flying on that 20 miler! You are going to destroy Boston, haha
And I can’t believe you did the 20 miler on the treadmill, the weather was indeed perfect on Saturday =)
The treadmill is just so useful! It makes running seem easy because you can multi-task or just zone out! Great job on the 20 miles! Happy Valentine’s Day!!
speeeedy! can’t wait to hear you crushed your goal HARD in boston. : )
WOW girl you are AMAZING!! Can’t BELIEVE how speedy you were, and that you weren’t even that tired afterwards!! You are my idol!
Aww that looks lovely! Enjoy your VDay gorgeous
I was wondering this very thing yesterday, about the banking. I always fade, and it’s not until the last 3 miles of a half. And it’s not necessarily extreme (like about 15-20 seconds per mile), but enough to aggravate me as to where I could have finished if I just stayed on pace – that I could have shaved a minute off had I maintained.
I don’t know, but, I ran faster initial miles at Carlsbad, and my overall pace ended up faster than this past weekend where I tried to hold back just a wee bit. It’s almost like the fade is the same even when I try to conserve a bit, and I might as well just push it a bit more in the beginning.
That and I think I need to run longer than 13 miles in my long runs so that the fade only comes maybe at 12.
You are too fast. That’s right. I did the math. And you are too fast.
Nice job on the 20-miler! I’ve tried to “bank” time during races and for longer efforts (i.e. marathons), I usually I end up crashing. Butttt there is something to be said for going out hard. It’s ballsy and you might end up feeling good and maintaining (or picking up!) the pace.
I’m with Megan on this, she makes a good point. And for shorter distances like a half, you kinda have to go out hard and keep that up the whole time, not even banking.
I’m way too lazy to do the math, but what pace is 20 miles in 2:35? cause that sounds pretty bad-ass! I wish my gym had treadmills that a) had this iphone plug in thing, and b) some sort of fan so I don’t soak through 80 sweat towels.
Nice nice job on the 20 miler!!!
your so speedy! im excited for you and boston!
YOU ARE SO SO GORGEOUS!!! LOVE THE PICTURES!! Killer run woman!! I hear ya on the treadmill runs….I have the exact same reasons!! Hope you are having an awesome day!
20 miles on the treadmill is amazing! I could not do that. Very impressed. But that valentines date looks even more impressive!! I love golden gate park and WINE!
I totally have adopted the “bank time for later” strategy at races. I always thought it seemed like a bad idea, and while I don’t push it to the extreme (well, again, I don’t do many races over 13 miles), I find it actually works for me — some of my later splits end up being faster than my starting splits. It’s those middle bored miles that eat away at my time.
I don’t think I’ll test this banking theory for the SFM, though — I want to try to pace evenly for that.
20 on a treadmill is super impressive!! Great run!
20-miles on the treadmill – wow, i have no words except to say that you are ah-mazing!