Archive for August, 2010

I am very happy to say that my long run on Saturday went much better this time around! I think it was mostly because the weather was a lot more cooperative and I did a few things differently.

After quite a long time I finally realized something during my longer runs. Gus, Clif Bloks, Sharkies, any type of those energy products don’t work for me when my stomach starts to growl at mile 8. Regular Clif bars don’t give me good energy to start off on my run, but surprisingly KIND bars do very well.

During the run, I can’t really stomach the gummy products, and they don’t fill my stomach well. It doesn’t help that it’s continually growling for several miles before I’m finished. So, I tried the Clif C bars instead. I had one at Mile 6 and another at Mile 12. They worked extremely well, so I think I found my fuel for runs. Yay!

I also did my route a little differently. Instead of doing one out and back, I did a few so I could stretch at my car during the half way point. And, if I had a meltdown at Mile 12, I was only 2 miles away from my car instead of 4.

But luckily, no meltdowns for me this week. Heck, I even came close to beating my Half Marathon PR! I finished 13.1 in about 2:45:38. My PR is 2:43:11. Not too shabby!

Overall, I finished the 16 miles in 3:24 with an average pace of 12:45. Which, is about the same time it took me to run 14 miles the previous week! What a difference a week makes!

This week is a scale back week, so my “long” run is only 6 miles. So this will be a nice break for my knees. The longer miles have been making them ache a little afterwards, but icing and doing some biking the next day help a lot!

I can’t believe the marathon is only two months away!

Are you looking forward to Fall? Or will you miss the Summer heat?

The fall weather will definitely be making outdoor exercise a little more enjoyable!

I didn’t have great luck with my long run this past weekend. I was actually looking forward to it on Friday evening! I got my Camelbak all ready, my clothes and shoes laid out, and my Garmin was charged. I was pumped, I was ready for a new PDR!

But for some reason, fate wanted to screw with me. Saturday was the perfect morning for a run. I woke up after hitting the snooze button a few times, but finally rubbed my eyes and jumped out of bed.

From the bedroom to the bathroom my right eye started to hurt. Really, really bad. I looked in the mirror and in a short time it became red and swollen. I figured an allergic reaction to the dog was behind it and it would be better in a few minutes (it’s happened before).

So, I continued to get dressed and as I’m gliding myself up with some BodyGlide, I glanced in the mirror and my eye not only looked worse, but it was stinging now too. I asked Todd to come look at it because you can only get so close to a mirror and he said it looked like I scratched my eye. (Thank you Todd for coming to check on your crazy wife at 5:30 on a Saturday morning!)

That’s not exactly what you want to hear before a 14 mile run! He said to lie down for 30 minutes and see if it got better.

I whined, complained, and cursed a few times because I was so ready for this run! But since I rubbed my eyes while getting out of bed, the only way I could have scratched it, I ruined my vision for the next few hours.

Half an hour later I was defeated. My eye was not any better and unless I wanted to run in hot weather later that day, I needed to push the run to Sunday.

—
In a way I thought, “Maybe this happened for a reason? Maybe I’ll have an amazing run tomorrow!”
—

I wish it were true. Saturday I pumped myself up as much as a could, with my eye back it it’s normal, seeing self. On Sunday I got up bright and early once again.

I can honestly say this was the worst run I have ever done. My legs felt like bricks the first 3 miles, it rained through miles 1-12 so I was completely soaked, and I came to a complete stop at mile 10. I just couldn’t get my legs to run anymore. I think there may have also been an emotional breakdown around mile 8? I guess it was a combination of not fueling enough, running out of water (2 miles earlier than last week!), and the fact that I was sloshing around in wet clothes and shoes. So, I walked the last four miles. Cold, wet, and defeated.

I never want to feel like that again. It was so bad that I was seriously thinking about dropping the marathon! I came to my senses though and realized it was just a bad run, everybody has one sooner or later.

Next weekend’s run can only be better!