21km Run on 2nd August [Workout 20/64]

Shag look after completion of my run

Results
Time: 2:20 hours
Distance: 21 km
Average pace: 6:40 min/km

Ramblings
Did my 2nd half marathon after the Osim Sundown marathon. The run was supposed to be on Saturday morning, but the Friday night cycle left my posterior in pain and I decided to postpone the run to Sunday morning (but late night gaming with Weigee and Brian) meant that I could not wake up in time, hence the Sunday night timing. This means that I'm one day late on my training schedule. Probably going to run on Tuesday morning (5:30am wake up again?) and Wednesday night to recover to my original schedule.

If I remember correctly, I ran a 2:37 min (official timing) for the Osim Sundown marathon, but Runkeeper recorded that I ran 21.99 km, so I was worried if Runkeeper was overestimating my distances. Looking at the Osim Sundown Marathon, if I take the Runkeeper data to be accurate (comparing apples to apples here), I ran the 21 klicks in about 2 hours 28.8 mins with an average pace of 7:05 mins/km. This means I improved my half marathon speed by 8.8 mins or a 6% improvement!

I am seriously considering the sub 2 hour half marathon training program after my Standard Chartered Marathon.

Running Route
Again, I took the route around Ulu Pandan Park Connector, but I made an overrun at the Lab One Building (nobody there tonight, probably because it's a Sunday), then followed it for the first time. It was very quiet, a few joggers (all running the other way), and quite a few cyclists. Almost ran into a cyclist because my head was down. I must remember to keep good posture and keep my head up.

I came out of the Ulu Pandan Park Connector at Clementi Road, got disoriented, and ran a bit down south before I discovered that I needed to cross the road. "Jay-run" across the road, and I was back on my trail.

Next, I came out near Star Vista. I made a wrong turn, I went up Commonwealth road, instead of heading down to Holland Road, as a result I was a few kilometers short and I had to run down Bukit Timah Road for 2 km.

The conditions for running on Bukit Timah Road were atrocious. Lots of barriers & roads work due to the MRT works, and the sidewalks were tiny. I was feeling quite tired at this time (last 5 km), but my splits were generally okay.

Fueling
0:45: Gel number 1
1:30: Gel number 2
After run: 1 Energy Drink ($1.20 at NTUC Express, forgot the brand), 2 Chocolate milk packets and one bashed up banana.

I brought 2 bananas but didn't touch them during the run. On hindsight, I should have taken a banana at 1:15 and the gel at 1:45 so that I could last until 2:30. I was feel quite tired towards the end of the race.

Side note: I was reading up about fueling, the magical formula appears to be 1 gram of carbohydrate per minute of running. I need to go check how much carbohydrates my gel gives me.

Afterwards
Didn't sleep well that night, I was wide awake. I should have checked whether the energy drink had caffeine. The two gels I took had zero caffeine in them.