13-mile run; beginning nutrition tests

For breakfast, around 8am, I had 2 scrambled eggs and a couple bites of a banana (which hadn't digested by the time I started running at 9:30. Although it was around 50* outside, it had been raining all night and was still threatening rain if not raining, so I went over to the Cool Springs Y to set a new personal record for consecutive miles on the treadmill: 13, plus 0.5 cool down. My instructions said, "13 mi @ 8:53." For some reason, I remembered that as "13 mi @ 8:48," so an 8:48 average is what I was aiming for. On the treadmill, I ran at 6.8 mph, or 8:49 min per mile:

• 1—8:59 (including warm up)
  
• 2—8:48
• 3—8:48
• 4—8:49
• 5—8:48
• 6—8:48
• 7—8:49
• 8—8:48
• 9—8:46
• 10—8:44 (increased to 6.9 at the 10-min interval for 1+ minute)
  
• 11—8:25 (increased to 6.9 at the mile for 1+ minute and at the 10-min interval)
  
• 12—8:48
• 13—8:29 (1:53:39 total at 13 miles)
  
• Cool down—6:21
  
• Total time: 2 hours
• Total miles: 13.5
  
• Total calories (according to the treadmill; I had no HR monitor on): 1,600+
  

I was actually glad I was on a treadmill because I maintained a steady pace. I really wanted to be done at mile 10, but the treadmill made me keep moving. And I kept telling myself to go. Will says to think about winning, so I pretended I was in a race and that I was being paced by the guy next to me. Also, I knew I had to do it. If I quit early today, the first long run in my current 16-week marathon training guide, there really wouldn't be anything keeping me from quitting in the subsequent weeks (especially when the runs get longer, but hopefully I'll get outside for runs longer than 10 miles from now on). I didn't want to quit; I wanted to succeed and win! The last two miles I tried to pick up the pace slightly to push myself to the end of the 13.

An 8:48 pace was definitely maintainable and I should have no trouble with that for an entire marathon. Unfortunately it's still not at the competitive level, nor will it get me to the finish line in 3:40:00 (Boston qualifying time; 8:23 pace. I wonder why I was running under that pace?), but it's definitely a step in the right direction. Physically, I know I can maintain that pace; can I also maintain an 8:23 pace? I have to remember to start with the correct pace group and stay with them until the end--even if I feel like giving up!

I had a 20-oz water bottle, 1 oz of almonds, and a bottle with 1 Tbsp honey and 5 oz water with me. I ran with the little bottle in my pocket so that I could get used to running with something. I'm also glad I did because it mixed up the honey/water well. I'm not sure that it really did anything nutrition-wise, though. I had another 4-6 oz water at mile 10 and again about 1.5 miles later. When I finished, I drank most of the rest of my water bottle and ate the almonds (it was getting close to noon and I was hungry!). About 20 minutes later, I had a 10-oz smoothie (protein powder, bananas, chocolate Ensure, almond butter, and milled flax seeds). Besides that my body decided not to fully digest everything (the banana bites from breakfast, mainly) until mile 6 when I had to take a bathroom break, I felt great. I will have good blisters on my foot, but that's normal.

The whole time, I was trying to do everything correctly (although I'm sure I forgot to think about breathing right most of the time; I did breathe, though!). I didn't succeed 100% of the time, because every time I would consciously tighten my core I would move up on the treadmill. That tells me that I could be running faster if I use my core correctly.

10 6 3 EDI is on my list for today, but because the Titans are playing this afternoon and I ran hard this morning, I will probably put that off tomorrow so that I'll have something to do in the afternoon. That and I probably won't get a new schedule until Tuesday, so I can either take Monday off or run sprints (or maybe get on my bike...hah!).