This past Sunday, I ran the half marathon at a pace of 10 min per mile. The first 6 miles were around 9:20/mile, then I got quickly slowed down. It was a hot and humid day which certainly didn't help. I popped 3 Advil before the race for my knee. I think this helped, although I still felt pain at around mile 11. Training for this distance for the first time was more about getting my joints and muscles used to working for 2 hours rather than training my lunges. I was never out of breath and my heart rate was never very high. My legs were tired and so was my body.
Yesterday I ran in a 3.5 mile race in downtown Chicago at a pace of 7:30/mile. The pace was really hard for me to maintain since I haven't really been training for speed. I've never appreciated the differences between training for short and fast distances versus long and slow, but I understand them now.
Overall, I'm happy with my progress. In 2 months, I went from never having run more than 3-4 miles to running a half marathon. I'm comfortable going out on a 7 mile run now, and hopefully I'll be able to maintain this comfort moving forward. I'm running in a relay race in about 2.5 weeks which requires me to run 3 legs, each of which are 5 miles. After that, I will be returning to strength training.
congrats man! now get back to squatting.
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