Sunday, October 10, 2010

My first 16 miles ever!

Today I ran 16 miles. They were mostly good, high quality miles, even though the average time is much slower. I achieved 2 very important goals: I ran at a good, strong pace and I have no physical pain.  I know that I should have run at a slower pace, but I am trying to improve my form and run more strongly.  Most importantly, I want to do all those things and still feel fresh and lovely at the end!
I decided to do the run on a treadmill for a specific reason:  I wanted to make sure that I would do a good quality run.  Now whilst this might be a false positive, the treadmill has proven to be my friend in the past, and for me the issue is more psychological:  if I can do it on the treadmill, I can do it anywhere. Sixteen miles took me 3:06:21. Most of the miles were pretty fast, but since I was running on the treadmill I thought this strategy (of running faster) would make up for the  missing elements found in an outdoor run. I ran consistently, and when I needed to, I walked for a minute to recover.  That is actually a very useful strategy, as it allows me to come back at the same or even a faster speed for a prolonged time (not unlike a tempo run).  Given how good I felt afterwards, I think this might be the way forward for me to get a bit faster.
I am still in awe of the fact of how good I felt/feel after that.  Touch wood, nothing hurts.  Whilst I felt a bit tired, that was all, and I am so grateful.  Had I run outside, I am not sure if I would have had as good a run, but I needed this confirmation of where my training is at (given the last 2 weeks).  My next long run is 13 miles, and I will be doing it as another half marathon next Sunday.  When I got to mile 13 today, I still felt very good, considering that I was fading at mile 12 in my last half.  So, let's see what happens!
My other news is that I have decided to watch all 80 Boston Bruins ice hockey games this season.  So, having watched the 2 opening matches in Prague on tele, only 78 (plus playoffs) to go.  I am ordering a new shirt, and will probably go with Bergeron's name on the back.  I believe that the Stanley Cup is coming home to Boston!
                            
                                                                                                                                                          
Monica (an ex-colleague from Italy) and I on our way to a Bruins game in April this year.



The Boston Bruins face-off with the New York Rangers.

11 comments:

  1. wow, 16 on he treadmill! Now that's impressive!

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  2. @Scarlett: It was a bit mind-boggling at first, but my fear of bonking during the marathon is stronger, so that kind of puts it in perspective!

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  3. Way to go! My 16 last week on the treadmill was pretty ugly. Glad you had a good run.

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  4. Oh, Natalia, that is amazing. Congratulations!

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  5. 16 miglia su un "dreadmill" è un grande allenamento sia perchè l'attrezzo rallenta la normale andatura che si ha su strada e sia perchè il tempo non passa mai (nonostante tv, ipod ecc ecc). Sul lungo penso che al momento sia più importante non sentire dolore anzichè la velocità, quest'ultima tanto la si conquista sulle medie distanze. Bene, tu ti guarderai tutte le partite dei Boston Bruins ed io quelle dell'Italrugby che seguirò anche in Scozia.
    Infine the Sir Giorgio's squire è colui che non ha il blog.

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  6. 16 Miles, well done! That is awesome! Doing on a treadmill may be easy in some ways but certainly tough in many ways. Not many people will run that far on a treadmill. The half should be much better than the previous one. Have a great week!

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  7. Great run - and all on a treadmill! -CONGRATS!

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  8. I cannot believe that you did 16 miles on the treadmill: I'm so impressed! Well done!

    I've been using the strategy run-walk-run for my long runs for a while now. I run 2K, walk a minute, run 2K etcetera. Result is that I run faster and that I'm not exhausted by the end of the run. It helped me yesterday to improve my 10K with almost 3 minutes. Definitely works for me and while running yesterday I decided that I will use this method for my entire half marathon training.

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  9. excellent job with 16 miles AND on the treadmill. You are running really well.

    P.S. You new hairdo looks great.

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  10. 16 miles on the treadmill is really really AWESOME!! Great! Congratulations! good luck on your future runs! :D

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  11. Thanks everyone for the good wishes and good karma! It's always very encouraging to me.

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