I was in Cambridge this weekend visiting Emma so I headed down to the river side and went along the tow path, with Emma cycling alongside to keep me company. The plan was to do an easy 9 miles, which would take me well beyond the first lock and into the countryside beyond. It was a fairly hot and muggy day, about 18 degrees Celsius when we left home.
This was the first outing when I was taking my Camelpak with me. This is a small backpack, which contains a water bladder with an attached straw and valve. It allows me to carry up to 3 litres, far more water than I could in a bottle, although I only half filled it that day. It also leaves my hands free, which I find more comfortable, and provides pockets. In this case all I had was an energy gel to take at 5 miles, but if I was going alone I can fit phone, keys etc. comfortably.
The run itself went really well, apart from most of the runners we passed being anti-social and refusing to return our cheery good mornings. The distance didn't really affect me apart from a little bit of pain in my feet where they've softened up, and the pace was consistently between 9:00 and 9:30 min/mile, with heart rate between 160 and 170 bpm. Basically just steady, solid running, with my easy pace continuing to drop as I get some more consistent training under my belt.
It was going so nicely that at 8 miles I decided to really go for the last mile and see what I was capable of with a bit of distance in my legs. If my calf had ached more I wouldn't have risked it, but it had been fairly quiet for most of the run. The last mile was completed in a 06:36 min/mile pace, with an average HR of 191. This work was definitely over threshold, and at the end of the mile I was pretty killed, though as the finishing pace was 06:20 min/mile I must still have had some left to give.
Most of all the ability to finish that fast shows the first 8 miles really didn't touch the sides, and gives me confidence that I'll be able to do the planned 11 miles next weekend without too much difficulty. Along with that easy 11 I'm also hoping to do two 4 mile runs during the week, continuing to increase the proportion done at half marathon pace.
The other test I did during this run was looking at my rate of water loss, to get an approximate idea of how much I need to drink for a given run length. Under an hour I don't worry too much about what I drink but, as I learnt to my cost at the marathon, when you get over this time it becomes increasingly more important.
After some calculations I got an estimate of 1.5L/hour. While the conditions yesterday were about as hard on the system as you're likely to find in the UK I'm definitely going to try to drink over a litre an hour, as well as repeating the test a couple more times to get a better idea. If you want to see the calculation or try it yourself it's written in detail after stats and map.
89 miles to go...
Distance: 9.01 miles
Time: 01:20:34
Pace: 08:56 min/mile
Heart rate: 170 bpm
Map: Here
Calculation
Weight before: 72.5 kg
Weight after: 71.2 kg
Amount drunk: 750 ml (=750 g)
Time: 1 hour 20 minutes (=1.33 hours)
Water loss = Weight before - Weight after + Amount drunk
= 72.5-71.2+0.75
= 2.05 kg = 2.05 L
Rate of loss = Water loss / time
=2.05/1.33
= 1.54 L/hour
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