Half-Marathon Personal Best!

The short version: A new half-marathon PR: 2:31:15. (Old PR: 2:35:40). (According to the Garmin, we actually ran 13.25)

The long version:

I guess all that long, slow marathon training finally paid off!

This race was not a goal race at all. I was just planning on running it as a long run, and having fun running through the city. I did have a great 8 miler last weekend, that was a lot faster than I expected, but I had no expectations of running that same kind of pace today. For once, my bad weather luck was absent, and conditions were fairly nice. It was a little warmer and sunnier than forecast, but nothing major, and most of the run was through the Englischer Garten, a large park in the middle of Munich, so we were running along nice shady paths with lots of trees. The few times we were running directly in the sun (especially at the end of the race), you could really feel the difference. But it was still lovely weather: 16°C when we started and a high of 20°C (68°F) by the end, with just very light winds (7 km/hr / 5 mph at the most).

The race started at 8:00 am, and there were tons of people out to run. A record number of registrants: 17 000. But that was between the half, the 10K, and the 5K. So it took us about 10 minutes to cross the start line. We started in downtown Munich, at Marienplatz, and ran towards the Englischer Garten. Once in the Garten, we were running in very familiar territory. Hubby and I do most of our runs, especially our long runs, on the various paths there, and the race went along many of the same paths that we regularly run on.

The first several kilometre markers were way off, so I had no idea what kind of pace I was really running, but hubby had the Garmin on and although he kept asking me if I felt okay, he had no concerns about my pace. Turns out I was running at a good clip. Everything was feeling good though. Legs felt fine, I was breathing comfortably and talking to hubby. The only thing that told me I was running a little on the fast side was that I didn't want to take in anything other than Gatorade. Gels, bananas, etc. all held no appeal.

The course was very flat, with two exceptions: going over a bridge in the Englischer Garten to cross over major roads at one point, and then right before the 20km point, there was a hill to get out of the Isar River valley where the Englischer Garten is, back to the normal city elevation.

Kept a good, fairly even clip up until the 11 mile point. Then I started to feel a little tired. Wasn't sore, but the legs were starting to get tired and I was starting to breathe a little harder. So miles 12 and 13.1 were slower. But I had a bit of a kick at the finish, and was delighted to cross the finish line in 2:31:15, a huge PR for me!

After the race, we were given water, then made our way to where we could gets bananas, apples, Semmel (buns), Breze (Bavarian soft pretzels), and Alkoholfrei Bier (non-alcoholic beer). The banana, Breze and beer were great post-run food.

This was a Stadtlauf (City Run) so it was a little different from other races. We did have chips, and very nice technical race t-shirts, but we all had to wear the race t-shirt as part of the run (to have access to all the race stuff, including the refreshment stations during the race and after). No bibs, no personal photos, and no medals. But hubby and I took some photos of each other after the race. There were also only four refreshment stations along the route, with only water and Sprudel (carbonated mineral water) at the first two, and water along with bananas and apple juice at the last two. Hubby carried two bottles of Powerade for us, however, so that was what we drank. After the race, we slowly walked home, taking about an hour and a half. It was a nice, long cooldown, although my hamstrings were starting to complain (didn't bother me at all during the run) and they really didn't like having to climb out of the Isar River valley.

I wore one of my running skirts, along with the race shirt, and it was very comfortable. I'm sure it helped me run faster. Photos below.

So I finally had decent weather for a run, and I finally ran another PR! Now I'm actually thinking of doing a 30km run in the fall, instead of a half, and then hopefully try to break 2:30 for a half next spring.

Here are the photos we took.

Splits (some of them are really off, although my total time is close to my chip time):

1 km: 8:13
2 km: 7:20
3 km: 7:51
4 km: 5:27 (this can't be right!)
5 km: 4:54 (I'm definitely not running this fast!)
6 km: 7:14
7 km: 6:56
8 km: 6:53
9 km: 7:33 (don't think I slowed down that much)
10km: 7:06 (that's more like it)
11km: 6:33
12km: 6:59
13km: 7:13
14km: 6:58
15km: 7:12
16km: 6:56
17km: 7:22
18km: 7:14
19km: 7:36
20km: 9:40 (this seems off too - I was slowing down, but not this much! This was the hill out of the Isar River Valley)
21.1km: 7:56

Garmin splits for the miles are much more even:

Mile 1: 11:34
2: 11:33
3: 11:04
4: 11:10
5: 11:21
6: 11:35
7: 11:11
8: 11:34
9: 11:21
10: 11:32
11: 11:25
12: 11:56
13: 12:09
0.1: 1:01

Hamburg Marathon Race Report

The short version: Excellent race organization. Very well run. Great crowd support, even for us turtles (or penguins). A marathon PR for me by almost 7 minutes. Chip time: 5:51:11.

The good: Cooler than forecast
The bad: Windier than forecast
The ugly: I had major stomach problems, which I normally don't have.

The long version:

I had several goals heading into this race. One, simply to finish the race before the course closed (accomplished). Two: PR (accomplished). Three: Run the entire race (didn't happen because of my upset belly.) Four: Run it in 5:45 (didn't happen, again, probably largely due to the belly.)

Normally, my stomach doesn't bother me at all when I run or race. The only time I've had an upset stomach while running was on our last 20 mile training run, and as I was dealing with major endometriosis pain at the time, and had taken a painkiller before the run, I figured those two things combined contributed to my upset stomach. But then I had my stomach be very unhappy today. I'm not sure why - I didn't eat anything that I don't normally eat the night before the race, and this morning I ate my normal pre-race food. Didn't do anything new during the race - the only difference is that I was drinking Hamburg water, which I've never had before. So who knows? Anyhow, it really affected me for a while. Basically, from about the 24 km mark on, my stomach didn't let me run as fast as my legs wanted to, and really slowed me down for a while.

The race started at 9:00. Our time group (5+ hours) started at 9:15. We had to be in line at 8:35 for the race organizers to check our bibs and make sure we were in the right corral (there was a letter on your bib indicating where you should line up.) There were starts on three different streets - they converged later on with no congestion, because the elites and fast runners started first, on their street, then another group started five minutes later, then another group, then the final group. It seemed to work really well. There wasn't a crazy amount of crowding at the start and there was no crowding at all where all the start lines came together.

It was nice and cool when we started. We were running slightly uphill for about the first 5 km, through a very nice neighbourhood, then slightly downhill for the next 5 km, with a large portion of the course along the harbourfront. Just after 10 km, there was a nice, long downhill, where I just let gravity pull me down. After the harbour, we turned into the city, and started experiencing some wind. The wind wasn't too bad until the 19 km mark, where it suddenly was blowing very strong. Got through the half in a time that I was happy with.

After the halfway point, things started going downhill. The wind was really blowing, and my stomach started acting up. It just wouldn't settle down, and the pounding was making it worse. My legs wanted to run faster, but my belly was saying no way. When I ran slow enough to keep my belly happy, my quads started complaining. So finally I took a walk break, which helped to settle my stomach, and I continued to take them whenever my stomach got really bad. So I didn't make my goal of running the entire thing. But since when I tried to run with my belly, I had slowed to a crawl, I was actually faster walking and then running!

Near the end, the shade that had lined most of the course disappeared for a long while. Although it didn't get terribly hot out there today (high of about 17°C), being in the direct sun felt really hot, and that slowed me down a bit. Tried to kick it into high gear at the end of the race, but although I was running, I wasn't able to sprint as fast as I would have liked, since my stomach was holding me back.

Received our medals at the end, and then our "Verpflegung" kits, which consisted of a banana, apple, granola bar and bottle of water in a plastic bag. Went to get a glass of non-alcoholic beer, then went to the massage area, and I got a massage, which felt really good.

The race didn't run out of anything, even for the slowpokes like me! There was plenty of water, sports drink, bananas, etc. at all of the water stations, and there were still lots of spectators lining the streets, cheering us on. Because our bibs also had our first names printed on the front, we heard our names called out a lot! Mine as pronounced the German way, which threw me at first, until I realized they were calling out to me! Hubby's name (Keith) was more problematic. You see, in German, and "ei" is pronounced "eye" and they don't do the "th" combination. So those who didn't know English were pronouncing it "Kite". Cute, anyhow, especially when the little kids tried to say it!

Kilometre splits and commentary on some of them:

1 & 2: 16:15 (missed the first kilometre marker)
3: 8:17 (uphill)
4: 8:05 (slight uphill)
5: 8:03 (slight uphill)
6: 7:46 (slight downhill)
7: 7:36 (slight downhill)
8: 8:04 (fiddling with my first gel)
9: 7:41 (feeling good)
10: 7:51
11: 7:10 (big downhill)
12: 7:39
13: 8:00
14: 8:07 (a little windy here)
15: 7:56
16: 7:56
17: 8:07 (took my second gel)
18: 7:53
19: 8:26 (strong winds: 20 km/hr with gusts up to 40 km/hr )
20: 7:52
21: 8:06
22: 8:42 (more strong wind )
23: 8:31 (still windy)
24: 8:54 (stomach starting to bother me )
25: 9:26 (stomach not happy)
26: 9:36 (stomach not happy)
27: 9:51 (stomach REALLY not happy )
28: 9:21 (took walk break to try to settle stomach)
29: 8:27 (stomach happier after the walk break)
30 & 31: 16:38 (missed 30 km mark - had photo and video taken)
32: 8:32 (stomach acting up a bit again)
33: 8:05
34: 7:57
35: 8:14 (stomach not letting me run any faster )
36: 8:09
37: 8:22 (starting to get tired)
38: 9:47 (tired and hot - it's too sunny - where's my shade? )
39: 8:31
40: 8:51 (slight uphill right here)
41: 8:23 (then a little bit of a downhill - stomach still not terribly happy)
42: 8:35 (trying to turn it on, but my stomach didn't want me going faster)
0.2: 1:14

Total time (watch): 5:51:18 Chip time: 5:51:11 Clock time: 5:54:09

So, I'm happy that I have a new marathon PR, but upset that I didn't manage to run the entire thing, and didn't manage that 5:45 I had hoped for. For the next while, I think I'm going to stick with half-marathons. For someone as slow as I am, you are out there for a LONG time when running a marathon and it's probably not something I'll do again soon. The half is a nice distance. Long enough to be challenging, but the training doesn't consume your life like the marathon does (again, especially when you are as slow as I am, and an easy 5 miles takes an hour to complete.) But who knows, I may change my mind in a few days, especially since I didn't meet my goal of running the entire thing. But if I do another marathon, I'll either look for a trail one, to minimize the pounding on the asphalt, or maybe even do a 50K that's on the trails. I'm sure one of the reasons I've been able to run more since moving to Munich is due to the fact that just about all of my runs are done on dirt or gravel trails, with minimal asphalt.

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Steps

I'm not sure how many steps you take during a half-marathon, but suffice it to say, you take a LOT (13.1 miles / 21.1 km)! Here are photos of me (first photo) and my hubby (second photo) running the Prague Half-Marathon on March 24th, 2007. We'll be taking even more steps on April 29th, when we run the Hamburg Marathon (26.2 miles / 42.2 km).



(Click the photos for larger images. And apologies for the poor quality - we didn't bring our scanner with us from Canada to Germany, so I had to take photos of hard-copy photos.)

Tags: Photo Hunt, Photo Hunters, race, running, half-marathon, half marathon, Prague, Prague Half-Marathon, race photos

Prague Trip & Half-Marathon Report

Somewhere along the line, I must have annoyed the race weather gods, because although I had perfect weather for my first half back in 2004, every race that I've run since then has either been: 1. extremely hot and humid (dangerously so), 2. very smoggy with poor air quality or 3. extremely windy.

The race in Prague fell into category 3.

Thank goodness this wasn't a goal race. My husband and I are in the middle of training for the Hamburg Marathon on April 29th, so this was just a race to practice pacing and it was an excuse to visit Prague. Plus hubby had 4 days of leave he had to burn before year end (new leave year starts April 1st) so we decided to head to Prague to run the half.

The race organization was top-notch. The expo was well organized, but very small (compared to the expos I've been to in Canada.) The race shirts were short-sleeve Adidas Climalite, so technical tees, and they are really nice.

Prague is a beautiful city. Globalization has definitely come to the city since the Iron Curtain fell. There are American, British, German and other European chains (both restaurants, stores and department stores) throughout the city. A lot of work has been done to restore the old buildings. It is really lovely and full of history.

Thursday, hubby and I drove to Prague, checked into our hotel, and headed for the expo. Picked up our kits, and wandered through some of Prague Old Town on the way back to our hotel. Ate dinner at a wonderful restaurant that had amazing service and incredible food. Very pricey, though, but we definitely got what we paid for.

Friday, in order to rest up for the race, we took a lunch-time cruise along the Vlatava River that runs through Prague, and saw many of the city's landmarks from the river. Also had a chance to scout out some of the race course, since a lot of it would be run along the river.

Saturday, the race didn't start until noon, so we had time to have breakfast, and slowly get ready. Our hotel was right next to the Charles Bridge along the Vlatava River, and the race starting line was just on the opposite side of the river at the Charles Bridge.

Left the hotel around 11:15, crossed over the bridge, and found our corral to line up. It was not too warm out (8°C), but overcast, and windy, around 20 km/hr. It would get windier as the race progressed.

The race started at noon, and it took us about 8 minutes to reach the starting line. Started running, crossed the chip mat, and we were off. Our first stretch of cobblestone was here along the Charles Bridge, and right after we had crossed over, before we managed to get onto asphalt.

After crossing the bridge, the first kilometre was directly into the wind. We crossed another bridge, ran along the other side of the river, again, directly into the wind. Since we were running right along the river bank, there were no buildings to shield us from the wind. So up until about the fifth kilometre we were running into a headwind.

After crossing another bridge, we change direction so we were finally running with the wind at our backs. Unfortunately, we were in a mixed industrial and residential area, so there were a lot of buildings, which meant we didn't have the wind pushing us along, except in a few places.

At the ninth kilometre, we turned and headed into Prague Old Town. From here until the 11th kilometre was the most scenic part of the route, running through Old Town and past many of the beautiful historical buildings in the city. This is also one of the busiest tourist areas, so there were lots of people along the route, whereas from the 2nd to 9th km there had been no spectators. Unfortunately, we were running on cobblestones through this area, so I had to cut my pace a bit, to keep my footing.

An hour into the race, the winds had picked up to 30 km/hr. They were mostly at right angles to us as we headed back along the river for the 11th and 12th km. Around the 12th km marker, we passed the first of three "beer refreshment points." Yes, they were serving beer on course, non-alcoholic, but still beer! Midway between kilometres 12 and 13, we headed into a residential area, and straight into a headwind. The winds were really messing with us, because when we turned around, at km 14, we were heading back into a headwind, this time with gusts of up to 40 km/hr. Not fun.

At km 16, we crossed yet another bridge, and headed into an industrial area of the city. This was the worst part of the entire course. Kilometres 16 to 19 were through and industrial area, past the Staropramen brewery (race sponsor and provider of the non-alcoholic beer on course, and the real beer at the finish) and these kilometres seemed to go on FOREVER. It didn't help that for km 16 and 17 we were running into winds of 30-40 km/hr and then for 18 and 19 we were running into winds that were gusting up to 80 km/hr! If I could change any part of the course, it would be here. Ugly, boring, and seemed to go on forever, with absolutely no crowd support. There was a beer refreshment point just before the 17th km marker and another at the 19th. Hubby had a few sips of beer at the 19 km point, just to say that he'd drank beer during a race.

At kilometre 20 we crossed another bridge, and I was feeling strong, so I picked up the pace. We ran along the river on the other side, and passed the Charles Bridge. The finish line was just before another one of the many bridges crossing the river.

Crossed the finish nice and strong, received my medal and my foil blanket, and headed across the river to the "technical area" to get out chip deposits refunded and to have a massage.

Was a little disappointed to find that by the time we finished, there was no food or sports drink left , although there was a lot of water. Fortunately, the refreshment points along the course (every 5 kilometres) had been well-stocked and didn't run out of water or sports drink (along they were serving Isostar which I've never had, so hubby carried two bottles of Powerade for us to drink in addition to the bottled water on course.)

Otherwise the race was very well-organized, and it was fairly flat, as advertised. There were only a few slight inclines leading up to the various bridges we crossed, and slight declines on the other side of the bridges. Otherwise, definitely flat. The race advertises there is only about a kilometre of cobblestone, but I would say there was a little more than that. Maybe 2 to 2.5 km of cobblestone, in total.

Now, I'm a little confused about my chip time, because hubby started his watch when we crossed the start line, and stopped it when we crossed the finish line, and it took us at least 8 minutes to cross the start line when the race started. So I have three different times for the race. Clock time: 2.48.07 Chip time: 2.44.02 Watch time: 2:40:55 (My half PR is 2:35:45 set in 2004 on a day that was perfect for me weather-wise, along on a hilly course, so not a typical PR course.) Since I know it took us at least 8 minutes to cross the start line (it was the only time I looked at my watch - hubby wore the Garmin to keep track of our pace) I'm inclined to think the watch time is correct, but have no idea why the chip time would be so off.

I'm very happy with my watch time, and with my race, despite the fact that it wasn't a PR. Given the conditions, I ran a really strong, evenly paced race (except for the kilometres running into the 80 km/hr winds for km 18 and 19) and I was able to kick it into high gear for the last kilometre and a half, after crossing the last bridge and heading to the finish line. I was never sore or tired during the race, and felt good and strong the entire way.

I also wasn't very sore after the race. My right quad and glute were a little sore on Sunday, but not sore enough to keep me from taking a tour of Prague and walking for most of the day. I'm feeling good today - went for an easy 3 mile run and the legs felt fine. So I'm confident that when I have a half as a goal race on a day with decent weather, provided I'm healthy, I will get that half PR.

So I'm of mixed feelings about the race. On the one hand, although I wasn't aiming for a PR, I was hoping to get close to it if the weather conditions had cooperated, so I'm disappointed that it was so windy and that I didn't run as fast as I could have. On the other hand, I wasn't really racing from the start, so I can't really be disappointed that I didn't PR, since that wasn't my goal. At any rate, I feel confident about Hamburg, provided the weather cooperates and I stay healthy.

No official photos yet, and I haven't uploaded my trip photos yet, but I do have a few photos of us after the race:
http://sports.webshots.com/album/558384260FQDSKy

Tags: running, race, half-marathon, Prague, Prague half-marathon

Runs This Past Week

Had a good week of training, leading up to the taper for the Prague Half-Marathon on March 24th.

Monday: 8.5 miles total. 3 km easy jog warm-up, 5 x 1 km repeats, with 400m rest between each; 1.5 km easy jog cooldown, 1.5 miles walking cooldown.

Tuesday: 3 easy miles

Wednesday: 7.5 miles total. 2 mile warm-up, 3 tempo miles (@80% Heart Rate Reserve), 1 mile running cooldown, 1.5 miles walking cooldown.

Thursday: Scheduled Day off and Massage

Friday: 8 amazing miles with hubby, with an average pace per mile of Half-Marathon pace minus 10 seconds.

Feeling really good heading into the taper week for the race in Prague.

10 Mile Run

Hubby and I ran 10 miles through the Englischer Garten when he came home from work today.

The weather was nice and warm - we were running in shorts and short-sleeved tops. It was windy in places, but we managed to avoid the worst of the wind.

Although my legs haven't been sore since Monday, they clearly still haven't totally recovered from last week's 20 miler, since they were heavy. But I ran the full 10, even though I wanted to cut it short. Good mental training, at the very least.

6 Mile Run

Ran 6 miles today through the Englischer Garten. Kept my heart rate under 70% of Heart Rate Reserve. It was a slow run, but I got the mileage in.

The weather was lovely, although it was a little windier than I had anticipated. Still, I was only running into the wind for about a third of the run.

5 Miles Yesterday

When hubby was home from work yesterday, we went for a run together. 5 miles. The first mile was horrible - legs felt tight and heavy. But things improved after that and it ended up being a good run.

The weather was beautiful. +12°C, sunny, with only a light wind. We ran along the Isar River, turned around after 2.5 miles and ran back.

We are lucky that it has been such a warm winter. The weather has been perfect for marathon training.

Weekend Workouts

Well, the cold water and ice bath on Friday after our 20 mile run worked, because my legs weren't too sore this weekend. I was tired after the 20 miler, but not in pain or experiencing a great deal of soreness.

Taught "Step and Tone" at the gym on Saturday. I had a medium-sized class, which was nice. Used the BOSU for the sculpting/tone portion of the class for a change of pace.

Sunday I ran 3 miles, nice and easy. Legs were tired, but it felt good to stretch them out.

Hubby and I are now registered for the Hamburg Marathon on April 29th. We've both our flights, hotel and registered for the race!

20 Mile Long Run

Hubby and I ran 20 miles through the Englischer Garten today.

We had a GREAT 20 miler! (Motionbased says we ran 20.34 miles to be exact. ) A run like that gives me a lot of confidence for the marathon. The first 11 miles were amazing. I was just in a groove and motoring right along. One of those days when running feels easy and everything just flows. Just totally awesome. The next 8 miles were still good. Didn't flow quite as well, probably because we were running into the wind at that point, which was blowing quite heavily (around 25 mph) plus I was starting to get a little tired. Amazingly, my legs really didn't start feeling sore until around the 17 mile point. Sure, after 12 miles or so they were tired, but not sore. I was amazed.

The last mile I had enough juice left to kick it into high gear, and so I did. Ended the run on a great note. I have no doubt that if I had been mentally prepared for it, I could have gone 26.2 miles yesterday. So that's a great feeling.

Kept my HR under 70% HRR for the first 11 miles, let it creep up to 75% for miles 11-17, then just let it rise to where it would after that. Like I said, the last mile I was just giving it, so my HR was up there.

Except for the wind, the weather cooperated. The rain stayed away, except for a few light sprinklings, and it alternated between overcast and sunny. Temperature was between 6 and 8°C (around 46°F)

You can view the full map of our run here.

Tags: running, run, Munich, training, Englischer Garten

6.5 Mile Run

Hubby came home at lunch today, and we had a nice 6.5 mile run together. Then I took the car home (we had driven down to the Englischer Garten to run) and he ran the 2 miles home at his much faster pace. The 6.5 miles were nice and easy for me, after my 10 mile Marathon Pace run on Tuesday. The wind was blowing fairly hard, and it was easy to see the difference in pace between the miles into the wind, and the miles with the wind at my back!

Apart from the wind, the weather was lovely. It was around +12°C.

10 Miles Today

Ran 10 miles today down to the Isar River and through the Englischer Garten. It was a pretty good run. My average pace for the run was about Marathon Pace - MP (the pace at which I hope to run the marathon.)

It was overcast and around 5°C, with winds around 25 km/hr. Fortunately, for most of the run, the wind was at right angles to me. I did have three miles into the wind, and my pace was slower than MP for those miles, but my other miles made up for it. My last two miles in particular were quite a bit under as I was going for a "fast finish" run.

After the 10 miles were completed, I walked another 2.5 miles home.

Weekend Workouts

On Saturday I was at the gym, as usual, teaching my "Step and Tone" class. It went quite well. It was a medium-sized class, neither tiny, nor full. I seem to have developed a small, but loyal following of individuals who want simple but athletic step choreography. Here in Germany, most of the step classes involve a lot of spins and turns, and that's just not my style. I do a few more spins and turns than I would back home in Canada, since I am in Germany, but I can't totally change the way I teach.

After class, I lifted back and biceps and did some exercises with the stability ball. I need to keep my upper body and my abdominals strong for the marathon. I used the assisted pull-up machine, which is my favourite piece of strength training equipment, after the stability ball. I hope to work up to being able to do one chin-up/pull-up unassisted.

Sunday I ran 6 miles through the Englischer Garten. Did 2 miles @ 70% Heart Rate Reserve (HRR), 2 miles @ 80% HRR, then 2 miles cooldown, just running easy, trying to get my heart rate back under 70% HRR, but it stayed up around 75% HRR.

Workouts This Week

Been busy studying this week (anatomy and physiology) and prepping for our trip to Switzerland, so I haven't logged all my workouts. Here's what I've done so far this week (a cut-back week):

Monday: 2 easy miles on the treadmill; lifted back and biceps.

Tuesday: 6.5 miles total: 5 miles continuous running, walked up the steep hill out of the Isar River valley to avoid stressing my left calf, 1.5 miles easy jog home.

Wednesday: Horseback riding. Had a new horse - Napoleon! He was very nice, but a HUGE horse. 1.75 m high at the withers! (The withers is where the neck meets the shoulder on a horse. Germans measure horse height in metres, whereas in North America we use "hands" (one hand = 4 inches). So this horse is 1.75 metres tall at the base of his neck - taller than me! I'm only 1.68 metres tall (5'6").) Even with the mounting block, I still had to let the stirrup down four holes so I could get on! But he was very nice. Didn't like the whip, so I gave my dressage whip to my instructor, and he went very nice. My instructor said he can be a bit lazy without the whip, but this morning he was fine. My legs did get a good workout though! His only real fault is that he doesn't like to stand still at the halt and let you adjust your stirrups or the girth, so he had to be held while I adjusted my stirrups. So now I've found another horse that I really like.

18 Mile Long Run Friday, Step and Tone Class Saturday

18 long, slow miles in the books on Friday afternoon. Hubby and I managed to find enough clear paths to run through the Englischer Garten, but they weren't totally clear. They had been cleared of snow, so we weren't trying to run through a foot of snow, but there was still packed snow underfoot, and it was icy in a few places. The paths had sand/gravel over them, so the footing was okay, but I still had to alter my stride because of the uneven surface and to step carefully around the icy parts. So I was much slower than normal, even for a long run.

For the first 9 miles, I was about 30 seconds to a minute slower than normal, because of the footing, and then for the last 9 miles, I was 1-2 minutes slower, because my legs became fatigued a lot quicker, due to the change in stride and the uneven surface. Because winter arrived so suddenly, I hadn't run outside on a snowy surface at all this year - my last long run I was running in shorts and a t-shirt! I did have two short breaks in the middle of the run to strip off my soaking wet shirt and put on a new one. I sweat so much, even when properly dressed for the weather, that I needed those changes! Wicking/technical fabrics also can't keep up with the volume that I sweat!

The weather was fairly nice. It was overcast, with temperatures between -8 and -5°C, but there was very little wind, only about 4-5 km/hr. So nice enough weather for a long run.

I had a hard time keeping my heart rate in the right zone, probably because I was working so hard to keep my footing on the uneven surface. So not the best long run I've done, but I got the miles in, and that's the main thing.

Saturday, I taught my normal Step and Tone class at the gym. It went quite well. The class wasn't packed, but it wasn't small either, so that was okay. I didn't do any leg work for the sculpting portion (my legs were too sore from running 18 miles the previous day) but did a lot of upper body work and abdominals and lower back.