Good morning pubski. On Saturday I ran a 20K run, the longest race I've done and the second furthest I've ever run. I finished in 2:02:00. The first three 5Ks were incredibly consistent, but the fourth was 3 minutes off those times. My knee bothered me a little, but I also think my nutrition was off. I should have had a little more food before the start. But I finished!
In addition to running a lot of miles, I did hill intervals and "other." For me, hill intervals were running as fast as I could for about a minute uphill and then walking back down. I'd do three or four of these with about a mile jog before and after to warm up and cool down. Other is just anything to stay active. Hiking, snowshoeing, walking, biking. I'm a fair weather biker, so that hasn't really picked up this year. I'm a huge fan of walking. It's a great way to see the city. I've been tracking where I walk, and I'm working on covering the entire city. There's so much here I never knew existed. The rich areas are really impressive (and how I feel walking through them fascinating/depressing). One of the things I worked on running was how to manage food. Energy gels used to make me scratch my head in confusion, but they make sense now. Learning how to carry them and how and when to eat them was part of the training. There are others (including on Hubski) who know way more than me, but so far this is working ok for me. If anyone has suggestions for improvement (should I be lifting weights?), I'm all ears.
Well done! 12.47 miles, for those in the US. That's impressive. What was the course like? Hilly? Flat? Roads? Dirt trails? Keep at it!
Thanks! The route was a mix of paved roads and paved trails around Lake Monona (Madison, WI). I picked it for my first really big race because it's pretty flat. There are some undeniable hills, but they aren't big or steep. It's a nice course and was well supported. I'm signed up for the Madison Spring Half Marathon in a couple weeks, and that has a few decent hills on it. That will be a harder run. Then I'm taking it easy for a while. The half marathon is a personal goal, but after that (regardless of whether I finish) I'm taking it down a notch. I'll stick with 5-10Ks for the rest of the summer.