last week i went over 400 miles for the year. last year i ran 454.9 total. with mondays 16 mile run i am at about 35 miles less than my total last year, including the marathon. i should surpass that before the marathon. that is the good news. for this run i was determined to do 20 miles. i was going to do a 5 mile out and back 4 times. this is where i do my normal running, so it didn't seem that bad, in my head anyway. i started out and the weather was nice, 71 degrees and very cloudy. the bad thing was that the first 2.5 miles, which is slightly uphill, was also into a 20-30 mph wind. at times i felt like i wasn't even moving and the wind was so strong i couldn't even hear the songs on my ipod through the earphones. however, at mile 2.5 i turned around and headed back. sometimes it was like the wind was nearly picking me up and carrying me. that caused me to go a little faster than i wanted. however, my plan was to run this long run a little faster than the others because i felt like going so slow was actually hurting my feet and calves. i also planned to slow to a walk every 5 miles and take in some energy and water and when i got to an 11 min/mile pace i would start back up to a run. after the first 5 miles i felt really good and had a little extra time to walk since i had ran a few of the first 5 miles a little too fast. i also had to call emily back because i forgot to call her before i started the run. i did all that and started back to a run a little before i reached the 11min/mile pace. everything was going great. then at mile 8 i walked a little more, the wind and hills got to me a little. after that short walk i felt great again. then, just before mile 10 i needed to walk again. after that i could only muster out running another 1/2 mile and ended up walking the rest of the 16 miles. in my mind i had told myself nothing less than 18 on this run. but by mile 16 i felt really bad. i felt like i had overheated, like i couldn't get cooled of, even though i was only walking. i felt like i was breathing fire (it had warmed to 78 degrees by the end of the run and it was very sunny). after the run, i felt horrible all day. i got home, drank all the sweat tea in the house (something i had been craving since mile 11) then i drank a warm capri sun and put one in the freezer to cool off. when i woke up 2 hours later the caapri sun was frozen and i was still feeling horrible. i feel like a loser. it seems like only a short time ago i did much better in the clarksville 1/2 marathon than i thought i would and now i can't even finish 12 miles at a much slower pace. i finished the total 16 miles in 3:25.45. i think that is nearly 30 minutes slower than jeff ran 20 miles 2 days before. at this pace, last years marathon is going to continue to be my pr.
i don't understand how i can run 6 miles of hills or a 7 mile tempo run and still feel really good afterward. the only differences (excuses) i can come up with are these:
1) nearly all of my other runs lately have been at night, when it is much cooler.
2) i was wearing nearly 4 pounds of gatorade and water on my hip belt, along with ipod and snacks in both pockets.
3) i am psyching myself out so bad about this being so much longer in distance, even though i felt like this was going to be very doable.
if anyone has any extra motivational advice feel free to share. last year the 16 mile runs seemed pretty easy, this year they seem unreachable.
thought of the day: the only thing that keeps me from completing these runs is myself.
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