Didn't use the stopwatch, but left around 5:50AM and arrived a little after 8:10. Carried a hydration backpack which added a couple pounds to the load...for awhile anyway. By the end of the run, I'd gone through nearly the whole 2 liters. I also ate a roll of Shot Blocks: half after the first hour and the rest near the top of the 2nd hour.
The route through Rancho Sante Fe was nice, but some of the roads don't have much of a shoulder. Given that it's horse country, I figured there'd be some off road paths paralleling the road, but I guess the heavier trafficked direct roads don't have that feature. El Camino del Norte from the reservoir to Rancho Sante Fe Rd was particularly tight.
There were a couple of stretches of difficult hills. I tried hard to keep a comfortable training pace, but hills make it hard to keep the heart rate down and the quads from fatiguing without walking. Even a slow shuffle is hard. But what's strange is that the fatigue comes in waves. For a mile, you can feel like there's no way you're going to make the distance, and then you'll notice you feel pretty good, and you'll go two miles strong. I wonder why that is?
I did take about 3 walk breaks along the way: one to check my directions, another to talk to Joan on the phone, and a third just because I was tiring going up the long hill on El Camino Real from La Costa Blvd. Altogether, I probably walked a total of 10 minutes, which is more than I would like. But I wasn't racing. This was a training run, and even though the first few steps out of a walk break are tough, it does do wonders to refresh the legs.
Carrying the pack wasn't so bad as the water weight diminished. I had figured out how to the eliminate the air pockets in the bladder so that the water doesn't splash around. The only bother was that I couldn't seem to get the pack level. It kept wanting to shift over to one shoulder. I finished without any irritation though. I might do the 15K Lusardi loop next weekend for my final "long" run during the taper, and carry the pack again one last time. I won't need it, of course, for the marathon, and I hope the lack of a load will be noticed.
After last week's Lake Hodges run and experience with nipple chafe, I applied a couple of preventative bandaids today. It worked. No Andy Bernard scene for me. Definitely a good tip.
And thankfully, my bowels held out until I arrived at work. I was a little nervous about that. Being pretty regular, I wasn't sure what to expect, or what I'd do if nature called while I was going through the long residential and rural areas of Rancho Sante Fe and Olivenhain. The issue never came up until I was on campus and cooling down. Yay!
For "biking to work" I got a coupon for breakfast at The Dish and used it for a Naked Juice protein drink rather than the breakfast burritos or pancakes they were offering in the cafeteria. And now, after this entry, I'll take a shower and get to work. It feels good to start the day like this.
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