Thanks to "monsoon" season here in Colorful Colorado, things are actually colorful...and rather soggy. We had some pretty massive rain and thunderstorms last night so things were pretty damp this morning when Lisa and I set off on our weekly long run. A slight drizzle kept with us for the first few miles before the sun managed to peek out for a few minutes creating quite the steam room experience in my rain jacket. The rest of the run was relatively cool for this time of year and very overcast. Such a nice change to the blazing 100+ temps we've been having! It was also pretty cool to see the creek our path follows so full and fast.
After yesterday's trail run, the first mile of today's run felt pretty rough. I even voiced that maybe we wouldn't be able to complete this week's goal of 16 miles and would have to "settle" for 12. Thankfully that feeling passed after about 20 minutes as we settled into a slow but comfortable rhythm. This past week I've been working on training my body to not need as much on my shorter (anything under 10 miles) runs...less water, no chews, etc. I'm trying to get my body to use its stores more efficiently for times when I really need it. So for this week's long run I was able to carry half the normal amount of water. I'm still figuring out what my body needs nutritionally and when it needs it on these runs. I'm not fast so a distance that takes a speedy runner 2 hours or less to complete may take me 3.5 hours. It seems like as soon as I cross that 3 hour mark, I'm absolutely desperate for something if I haven't been "fueling" along the way. This week I think I found a good plan (for a cool day at least). After last week's horrible experience with a Clif Shot gel, I was in NO hurry to try that again! At the 7 mile mark I ate a Clif Shot Blok and 15 minutes later had half a Balance bar, 2 S!Caps, and some Gatorade. I only ate one more chew after that and finished my water and Gatorade. I felt so good that I ran the last mile pretty hard. I paid for that push though and got pretty nauseous and had to eat the other half of my Balance bar praying with each bite that I wouldn't be "that girl" who pukes in someone's yard.
Enough about logistical stuff...let me talk about the mind game side of today's run. I forgot to start the GPS when we set off...well actually I DID start it, but somehow managed to pause things and didn't realize it till 7 miles in. I was pissed...really really pissed especially since we were going off Lisa's time warp GPS that always has us running a 1-2 min slower pace and about a half mile less! About a mile later a little past the halfway mark it hit me. I have some weird unacknowledged and most likely unattainable goals in my mind that I wasn't aware of. Some goal, pace, or distance that I need to reach in order to have some kind of validation. Every time Lisa's GPS would proclaim a distance or pace that I knew was wrong, I'd either mutter under my breath or yell quite loudly about it. I'll admit it's stupid and unrealistic to think that I can PR each run, but I seem to be trying to. I think it stems a lot from the fact that I still don't look like I can run double digit miles. I'm still in transformation and it hurts when people that I've known for years don't believe me when they ask how far I ran today. It's a vanity thing and I'm going to work on it. Lisa was kind enough to help me talk through it all for a couple miles and by the time we got to our familiar "home stretch" I was grooving without thinking of pace and distance...simply enjoying the act of running. It's been approximately 16 weeks (4 months) since I started running and here I am running 16 miles no problem with a solid plan in place to run 2 marathons before the end of the year and a 50k in the spring. That's not half bad...not bad at all!
16 miles-ish - maybe a little bit further but who's counting?
12'40" avg. pace - slow but understandable after yesterday's trail run.
No comments:
Post a Comment