9(ish) mile run and the adventures of Stick and Box

Saturday's run was a new "longest ever". Our goal was 9.5 miles. In the 132 minutes allotted, we covered 8.78 miles. This was an increase of about 2.25 miles over our last "longest ever run".

We actually experimented with Jeff Galloway's proposed run/walk ratios this run (he recommends a pace of 3 min run, 1 min walk where we had been doing 10:3 or 8:5). I really liked it, because I felt like my legs held out a lot longer. Matt didn't enjoy it as much, because the constant time checking prevented him from "zoning out". We basically broke it up into 32 rounds of 3:1, with an extra 1 minute walk break after 8 rounds.

Our overall pace was about 15 minutes per mile. I don't want to get hung up on time, though. The distance itself was a victory. Temps were 86 with a heat index of 90, humidity of 57%. That's pretty ridiculous for 9:00pm.

During the run, I had some moderate hip discomfort in my left hip. I took periodic breaks to stretch out my ITB and pop the tendons back into place, which seemed to help. Surprisingly, I had no problems with my right shin; so, the periodic ache I'm having there is probably not a stress fracture. When we got home, I went through my normal routine of static stretching followed by a cool shower. I then decided on a whim to take an impromptu ice bath. We didn't have much ice, so it was pretty weak. I can understand the appeal though.

For fuel/hydration, we brought a good ol' 12 oz gatorade and a package of Clif Shot Bloks (they're like giant square gummies). The Clif Bloks worked great. They're really easy to eat while running, they don't leave a horrible aftertaste, and I definitely felt the effects. No glycogen issues on this run. We scheduled a Shot Blok approximately every 45 minutes (one at 12th round, and one at 24th). I may experiment with some other gooey fuel in the future, but I thought these worked awesome.

I ended up buying this CamelBak Aurora Hydration Pack (70 fl oz), which is different than the one on my wishlist. The one I bought is $65, compared to $50, but it has more pockets, more colors, and a greater water capacity (which I hope will make it more useful if I ever decide to transition to even longer distances). I don't know when it will arrive, but hopefully soon.

Also, the adventures of Stick and Box.... while we were running down Old Jacksonville Hwy during the first leg of the run, we came across a big cardboard box with a long gnarly stick leaning against it. We decided that Stick and Box were the main characters in a buddy comedy. Box is the staid, reserved, slightly overweight pencil pusher (to be played by Nick Offerman) while Stick is the spontaneous, fun-loving new guy who likes to shake things up (to be played by Seth Green). We decided that their love interest (which threatens to tear them apart) is Puddles, a refreshing but unreliable woman played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. We made them a theme song (although we didn't really get past "Stick and Box, Stick and Box, one is a stick, and the other's a box"). This took up a large chunk of our run.