13 Miles (9.11.11)

I went running this morning.  I took too long before I left. I downloaded an app used for run/walking.  I didn't get a fancy app.  I just wanted one that does the timer. I didn't need a GPS because I already have that. Also, I figured the less it does, the longer the battery will last.
I started off just running. Then decided I would run 3.25 miles before I started run/walking. I extended that a little bit to make it an even 30 minutes of running before I walked for 1 minute, ran for 4 and repeat.

Close to the end of 5 miles, I just ran the rest of the way to get to the car. I got my water and paced back and forth and back and forth until I drank about half my bottle.  Then I walked over to the loop again.

I ran in the opposite direction this time.

I continued with the run 4 minutes/walk 1 minute ratio.

There was an Ovarian Cancer walk going on and it was awful. It just kept getting worse. Walkers don't understand the concept of making room for a runner. They walk 5 across and even block half the road. I had to go to stops a few times just because people won't shift over when I'm on the very edge.

At 9 miles I had to change my ratio. That was the point that I turned around too.  I walked an additional few minutes just to recover a little bit.  I tried 3:1 ratio for maybe one time. That was still too hard and I was going too slow so I tried the 3:2 ratio.  Right after I got to 10 miles I switched to a 2:1 ratio. At 10.77 miles I had to walk for 5 minutes. Well I was trying to walk for a minimum but my shoulder/chest were hurting. I couldn't pump my arm without the pain and I didn't want to make things worse.  Then I ran for less than a minute and just knew I couldn't run any more based on my chest/shoulder pain.  At this point it was 11.15 miles.

Finally after walking until 12, I decided to try to run a bit. I ran .5.  At that point I finished the loop. When I turned around at 9, I forgot to account for all the walking I did by the car right at 5 miles.  I looped back and forth in the parking lot until I got to 13. 

I finished my run! I beat my goal time. My goal time was so slow to account for all the walking. I hadn't run 13 miles since March and I only ran more than 7 miles once since then.  I knew it'd be a hard run. My weekly mileage is 18.65 for this week which is pretty impressive for me but according to the training plan I should have run 25 miles.

My calorie burn only slightly dropped with the run/walk but it was a lot easier to do and I went further.

I ran 6.53 miles on August 7.
I ran 10.07 miles on July 31.
I ran 6.58 miles on July 10.
I ran 18.9 miles on March 26.
I ran 15 miles on March 13.
I ran 6.77 miles on March 6.
So those are all of my runs above 6.5 miles the 6 months. Not many! I should have had a lot more. I guess that makes me more proud of my completion today.  The run/walk method really helped. What also helped was being 2 miles from my car when I wanted to quit.

My exercise split for the run

The walking after mile 5

Shows the walking at 5 and to get to 13

I started counter clockwise and ran 5, then I walked near the car, then I ran clockwise until I hit 9 miles. Then I ran back to the car and walked in the parking lot until I hit 13.