Today I ran my weekly ten-miler. I returned to Valley Green, running the first half towards Lincoln Drive and back and the second half towards Northwestern Avenue. As I suggested in a previous post, I thought it might be time to experiment with my walk breaks, and today I did just that.
As I began my run, I planned to be more deliberate in pacing myself. I intended to run more slowly and to use the walk breaks to help me keep to the my goal pace. I alternated 2 minutes of running with a minute of walking. Alas, I began to speed up after the first half mile, and I ended up finishing the first mile about 45 seconds faster than I had intended.
About a 1-1/2 miles in, I encountered a long down-hill stretch, so I took fewer walk breaks. Was this a mistake? I don’t know. I do know, though, that the run became more difficult once I passed mile 6. While I got my ten miles in, I spent much more time with my legs feeling like lead than I would have liked.
Now I’m speculating about the cause. Did I not take enough walk breaks early in the run? I’m not sure. Perhaps the cause lay in sleep deprivation: I haven’t been getting enough rest lately. That may be fine for shorter (say, six-mile) runs, but I may be feeling the effects on my long runs.
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