When I stepped on the scale before today’s long run, I weighted 175 lbs. When I stepped on the scale after today’d long run, I weighed 170 lbs. I sweat a lot in today’s heat, which was around 78 degree per Weatherbug. Humidity was around 60% but it felt non-existent. I ran in the afternoon, which provided a nice amount of shade but the sun was pretty hot. I did 12.31 miles at a 7:52 pace. That is considerably slower than last week’s long run on Friday, that was also in 64-66-degree weather.
I ran in my new Wave Precision 11s, but to avoid tingling I left them looser on my feet than usual. That may have been why I ended up with blisters, which developed in the middle of my run. The added room presumably left room for my foot to slide around a bit and cause blisters. Other than that, nothing in my body bothered me. That’s great!
I did hit E for Empty about 3/4 the way through my second loop of Central Park. I had a PowerGel and some water-fountain water but I could barely get any speed. I was decimated to my base state of “Keep one foot going in front of the other, Ben,” when I was just about to start walking. For this reason it was a great run since it challenged me to endure. I picked up a little speed toward the end but not too much. Part of the motivation was trying to catch Elizabeth Corkum, who had begun her long run just a little before me. I never saw her, and I learned she waited for me until about 5 minutes before I finished. Darn!
Why I hit E had a lot to do with the heat, but possibly also because on set yesterday, I didn’t get to eat very much. My lunch (dinnertime) timed out weirdly so I basically skipped lunch, and for some strange reason crafty did not come around much with food after lunch. This meant I was the most starving I ever remember being in recent memory, come the end of the evening. At wrap, I cabbed back home and got Oglio & Aglio with Chicken from Euro Delights–which I’m also eating right now as I type this because I’d gotten so demolished in my energy (and I have a race in the morning). The lesson is: Make sure you’re consuming calories! Being so hungry yesterday didn’t help me, it seemed.
I did the first loop at a decent clip, finishing it just under 47 minutes. The second lap was slower and I stopped twice for water breaks but they didn’t last very long. What I didn’t do in today’s long run was to listen to NPR’s On the Media, which in the past seems to have slowed me down. I did load it onto my mp3 player, but I decided against listening. I’ll listen another time!