I guess it is no longer “long” when its route of my usual daily run in the past. I guess it is not running when I walk four seconds for every one second of running.
I plan to finish a half-marathon at the end of July and have not completed more than a 5-mile route since the Heppe 15 km at the end of May. I have the Fallen Heroes 5 Mile next weekend and will do 10 miles the following Saturday. Today, I did my usual 6-mile route from the past.
I’m measuring tomorrow morning and will need to be up by 3:30 am, so I was up at 4:30 today and out the door by 6:15. I remember the days when 4 am was my usual summer wake-up time, starting long runs by 5:15 to beat the heat and finishing by 7. Now, I whine.
Sticking with my ” don’t push the recovery ” plan, I set my countdown timer for four minutes and planned to run 50 paces each time it beeped. Today was my last quarter dose of Flecainide. Running 50 paces is not a struggle. I don’t want my heart rate to go above 133 bpm.
It was a successful morning. My heart rate didn’t go above 127 bpm and returned below 110 bpm before my run signal chimed.
During my daily 6-mile runs, I never carried water. On a long run, I wore my single-bottle belt and drank water with UCAN Hydrate every mile.
I’ll use the same routine during the 5-mile race next Saturday and will probably finish around 80 minutes.
The following week, I’ll be off Flecainide entirely and will increase my routine to 60 paces every 4 minutes while maintaining the 133 bpm limit.