New personal record, and a birthday swim session

Long run this week - 14 miles

This morning I finished the longest run I've ever done: 14 miles in 2:41:08, which works out to an 11:30/mile pace. It was frankly more difficult than I expected, and was noticeably slower than my 12 mile run last week, but I did manage to complete the run so I'm counting it as a success.

Today's course: multiple out-and-back legs

We had another good day for running here - it was about 55 degrees with clouds (and pretty heavy fog in the beginning). However, it was sort of on the edge of how cold it should be to require long pants, and I guessed wrong in taking some. I did have on my triathlon shorts as well so that I could adapt, and at about 5 miles in I stopped to remove the pants and leave them by the road so that I could pick them up on the way back. That threw me off my run/walk pattern, but not too much.

However, after I came back to where the pants were I also picked up the bottle of Gatorade I'd stashed on the way out and that's when it really started to go south. I tied the pants around my waist, refilled the small bottles that go in a specialized running belt, and headed off again. However, the combination of extra weight on the belt (which is secured with velcro) and the slippery material of the pants rapidly resulted in the belt, bottles, and iPhone all hitting the pavement just as I started up a big hill. I attempted to readjust, but nothing much seemed to work, so I ended up with the pants thrown over my shoulder and one of the water bottles in my hand while I sort of ran, sort of walked up the hill.

At this point the Calvary arrived in the form of my wife and daughter, who were on their way to get Birthday Pie(!) from Weaver St. Market. They stopped by the side of the road and I unloaded my empty bottle and the Troublesome Pants into the car, and got a few words of encouragement, so when I started up again it was going much better. I decided to write off that one 6-minute segment and just focus on the rest of the run.

The last mile and a half of the run were particularly difficult, and were the only time I've had to walk in the middle of a run segment. I managed to keep running, but added probably 3 extra walk sessions in there so my time at the end wasn't too good.

Birthday Swim

The 18th was my 29th 39th 49th 53rd birthday, and as I was scheduled to swim I figured I'd try to do something suitable. Since doing a workout of 53 x 100 wasn't within my reach, and 53 x 50 seemed like it was going to require a lot of counting, I decided on a set of 53 lengths (1,325yds), followed by a 53 second rest, and another 53 lengths, which is right around the distance I normally do in a session.  The pace wasn't spectacular, but it was good to get the swim in. I suspect I need a refresher course with my swim trainer, so I'll try to set that up soon.

For those scoring at home, I did a 50yd warmup at the very start

Other workouts this week

I didn't get a full set of workouts in this week - Tuesday I had to attend to some family health issues (apparently OK for now) and Friday was supposed to be bike day but the weather and my enthusiasm were both pretty sorry so I just took it off. I did get in a 6-mile run on Thursday with KT at about an 11:30 pace and an 8-mile solo run on Monday at a  10:35/mile pace, which felt pretty good.