Blowing up

Two short runs (6k and 10k) and ergs/boat sessions seemed to put me in good stead for Sunday, when I planned to do a 30k run to check my current fitness.

The weather was fine and there was no wind, so hopes were high for a good pace and time of around 3hrs, but having never run beyond 21k previously, there were some reservations about what would happen after 2 hours.

Things looked good after the first 10k, where I felt relaxed after the two loops around the golf course. My lower legs felt a little tight, but nothing to be concerned about.

The pace slowed down a little between 10k and 15k, when I was running against a slight headwind going towards Warwick. It's at this stage where I felt perhaps my first 10k had been too fast. A check on the watch revealed that I was on course to match my half-marathon time from last week.

Things to a turn for the worse as I approached the half marathon mark. I don't know what 'hitting the wall' feels like, but my pace slowed a lot towards the 21k mark. At this stage slowing down wasn't an option as I feared it would cause me to stop totally. Doggedly I kept going, but was expecting bad things to happen...

The expectations turned out to be true, as I struggled up the hill for another loop of the golf course. Although the 21k was achieved with the same time as last week, I could feel that it's pointless to try to keep to the 3hrs target. 25k lasted 2hr40mins, and by this stage I could walked at the same pace as I was running. The mp3 died on me too...

The last 5k was predictably my worst, and 3hr20min was my final time. Some work to do when I get to Beijing then...

21k

Just did a half-marathon today, though I may have rounded up the distances a little :)

http://www.walkjogrun.net/routes/current_route.cfm?rid=E391006F-CA43-5E78-B45644318B67D048&success=1

0 - 10km: felt ok, did two laps around the golf course which I'm pretty familiar now, although the hills still feel quite tough. Listening to Debussy almost sent me to sleep, but Strauss was strangely uplifting. Need to sort out the shoelaces next time, the left one came undone twice. Trying to get started again after tying them was pretty difficult... Total time at the end of the second loop was about 55mins.

10 - 15km: legs beginning to feel heavy from this point, hopefully with more training this won't happen until much later on in the run. Still kept good pace, although not trying to outdo things. The canal looked nice, but someone should do something about those swans.

15 - 18km: probably around the distance when starting to feel numb around the knee. 'This is bad' I thought, so slowed down a little, and tried to lower the feet a little. Seemed to work, as the pain didn't arrive as feared.

18 - 21km: tried not to think about the end, slowed down a little. Just taking it steady and bringing it home now. By this point the music is on its 3rd repeat, so I turned it off. Breathe, head up and don't stop.

I can do this