Haakan and I did the Father's Day 10k last Sunday, and to say that it was a little bit of a disaster would be an understatement. We set out MUCH too fast (we realized in retrospect) and by 2.5 miles in, I was burned out. I had a total breakdown, crying and all, because I felt like such a loser. I finished a faster 10k at 18 weeks pregnant, in the pouring rain, and having to pee. After crunching the numbers, Haakan decided that the pace had been entirely too ambitious and I'm actually quite a bit slower than he thought, which is both comforting and depressing. At any rate, I figured out a few new ways how to NOT run a 10k. Next up, a 5k in Bellvue in July.
My runs this week were ok. I did a 7 miler around the lower track of the reservoir, which was fine except for the two ENORMOUS blisters I now have on my pinkie toes. No idea where they came from or why they showed up, but they suck and they hurt and I can't wait until they're gone entirely. My speedwork was fine, no big surprises or problems, but it was kind of miserable since it was already 80 degrees and like 90% humidity when I did it at 7am. Yesterday's long run was like a death march. I meant to do it early in the morning, but then Charlie had a really bad night (woke up choking on mucus running down his throat, poor thing), so that means I had a bad night, too. When 5am rolled around, I thought there was no way I was going to be able to run (and it's good that I didn't, since he woke up again at 6am wanting to eat), so I ended up going out around 5pm, which is probably the worst time of day to run in the summer. It didn't seem that hot until I started moving, and then I heated up very quickly. My bowels were upset the entire time, so there was more than one potty break involved, plus a lot of walking to make it through. My hip injury from the last round of marathon training has been rearing it's ugly painful head, and I almost bagged it after 6 miles, but I knew I'd hate myself for not completing the run, so I sucked it up and finished. By the time I got home I was a mess and I spent the evening in a nauseated low blood sugar lump on the couch.
I won't lie, this bad of a run this early in training has thrown me a bit and I'm having some major doubts about the wisdom of this marathon. I'm going to give it until my next cut back week and see how it's going before I really decide one way or the other. I fully expect the 18 and 20 mile runs to be unpleasant, or at least really tough, but if the 14 and 16 are that way, too, that might be a pretty good indication to me that I should drop to the half marathon instead of the full. Haakan is still very optimistic, though we've reassessed my finish time goals to have me coming in right around 4:45, rather than shooting for 4:30 (I'll try for 4:30 or under in May when I do Pittsburgh). Unfortunately, there's no 4:45 pace group, so I'm on my own. I may try to find a group hoping to finish in 4:45 so that I don't have to go it alone, but we'll see. I'm a little afraid to post about it on Runner's World for fear of being laughed at by the hard core marathoners, for whom a 4:45 finish would be a "why bother?" kind of situation, but that might be a good place to find some other runners hoping for a finish in that range. I feel like if I could just get the aches and pains out of the way, I'd be doing really well. Maybe I'll try to get a fuel belt to bring on the 12 miler next weekend so that I don't actually have to stop for water or anything. I need to get used to not stopping or these long runs will be useless to me, since I don't really plan to keep stopping during the marathon to use the porta potty and all (hopefully!).
The one bright spot of my disaster run yesterday is that I was very pleased with my expensive running shirt from Lululemon. It held up great and was the one thing that wasn't bothering me during the run. I was annoyed that my shorts wouldn't stay put (I got some nice chafing on one thigh) and the liner kept riding up, but the shirt worked great. I may try to get one in a sleeveless style, too. And some longer shorts. Lesson learned, for me, short shorts and the long run don't really mix all that well. I think some longer compression shorts might be in order for the next long run.
1 comment:
Hey Gen. Sorry things didn't go as well as you had hoped. Running has many parallels with life and the ups and downs is just one of them. No harm in dropping down to the 1/2 if that's what you need to do right now.
Have you tried/do you use body glide? It's great stuff. I smear some on my inner thighs and just behind my armpits because that's where I tend to chaffe.
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