See what I did there? As everyone else is discussing the long weekend I went with discussing my long run. Oh Marathin Monster. You have consumed my entire being.
After a very successful Track Tuesday I sat on the couch never to run again. That's a lie. But I didn't run again the rest of the week. Saturday the plan was to hit the always scary 16 mile mark for the long run. Why I had such a hard time getting out of bed I will never know. But I peeled myself from bed, stumbled along in the dark cursing as I stepped on random bits of things (wood floors hold a tremendous amount of debris) and made it to the kitchen for breakfast. Close to 7am
Sunday seemed even hotter than Saturday and since Autumn had worked Friday and Saturday night we scrapped the run again. No worries though because this is where the long weekend part comes into play. It was like a magical extra 24 hours designed solely for the miles I fully intended to run before my return to work! This morning I was up at 5 for breakfast and tried the whole long run process again. By the time we were ready to run I was feeling pretty apprehensive because I've been having some mysterious pain in my left leg. Once we started running it started to hurt pretty bad but since our first interval always sucks I continued on. By the second interval it was still hurting and I became irrationally angry (the Monster part of Marathon Monster) and started spewing about how much my body hated me for absolutely no reason and that I was doing everything right and it was just being ungrateful. See why I'd make an excellent mother? I concluded that I was only going to run 10 and since next week is another 16 (Why?) I would do it then.
By mile 3 I'd sorted myself out and decided I was doing 16 even if it took me all day which it practically did. On the bright side, early into the run I had to stop at Starbucks to pee! My train has been parked in hydration station so it's quite nice to see it working. We ran from Seneca Park down to the Waterfront and if you know Louisville, that seems like it should be far. It was not. Just over 6 miles. WHAT?! How has it not been 8 miles yet???? On the other bright side (almost all sides were bright at this point) the Mayor's Hike, Bike and Paddle event was about to start. It's a cool event where the Mayor encourages the city to come out and be active. There's yoga, zumba, tai chi and as you can imagine, hiking, biking and canoe/kayak paddling. Even better, it's all FREE. So since we were down there we snagged some free t-shirts and other swag before attempting to fill up the water bottles. Except the fountains weren't working. WHAT?! The things that outraged me this morning...anyway we continued along the trails by the river and found some water fountains that were working and filled up, hit the 8 mile mark and turned back. Somehow within like a half mile I drank almost all of my water so we turned to go back to the water fountains before hitting no man's land on the way back to Seneca. Somehow we got lost doing exactly what we'd just done (thanks runner brain) and decided to figure it out along the way. We did make a stop at the Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen on Frankfort Ave. around mile 11 when I couldn't take the thirst anymore. Did I fill up my water bottle with faucet water from the bathroom? Yes I did. It was either that or a puddle. By mile 12 or 13 we were still feeling pretty good which translates to great by long run standards and I attribute that to my nutrition being on point. I'll write about my personal nutrition soon enough but today was one of those perfectly executed moments where I took in all my calories right on time. After that magical 13.1 mark I got into my own head just a little bit for just a second and was really wishing I were done but for the most part the run after mile 3 was all positive. There was more walking that I would have liked but it was all pretty necessary. I wanted to finish still standing and I do have to go to work tomorrow. I refilled my bottle one more time when we got back to the park (I was in for like 48 ounces by this point!) and literally before we knew it we were done! 16 miles. Like a boss. I refilled again so I'd have water for the road and did some stretching which was excruciating then hopped in the car for home.
As I sat in my ice bath eating a fruit roll up and chatting with The Colonel we decided to assess the damage of the day's events. Basically all the usual culprits except for the return of sore toenails (this apparently happens at 16 miles but not 14), a really jacked up left leg and a chafed arm from rubbing against the seam of my shirt. How random. And yes, The Colonel sat in the bathroom and chatted with me as I shivered in the bathtub. This is a normal relationship.
I will unfortunately miss tomorrow's Track Tuesday due to this run...and because of whatever I've done to my leg but asAutumn said during my meltdown this morning, "In the grand scheme of getting to the start line is speed work really all that important right now?" The track workout was definitely fun and I will be incorporating it into my routine but maybe not right now. Increasing mileage and increasing speed just seems like asking for trouble which I'm not interested in.
So what about you? What did you get into this weekend?
By mile 3 I'd sorted myself out and decided I was doing 16 even if it took me all day which it practically did. On the bright side, early into the run I had to stop at Starbucks to pee! My train has been parked in hydration station so it's quite nice to see it working. We ran from Seneca Park down to the Waterfront and if you know Louisville, that seems like it should be far. It was not. Just over 6 miles. WHAT?! How has it not been 8 miles yet???? On the other bright side (almost all sides were bright at this point) the Mayor's Hike, Bike and Paddle event was about to start. It's a cool event where the Mayor encourages the city to come out and be active. There's yoga, zumba, tai chi and as you can imagine, hiking, biking and canoe/kayak paddling. Even better, it's all FREE. So since we were down there we snagged some free t-shirts and other swag before attempting to fill up the water bottles. Except the fountains weren't working. WHAT?! The things that outraged me this morning...anyway we continued along the trails by the river and found some water fountains that were working and filled up, hit the 8 mile mark and turned back. Somehow within like a half mile I drank almost all of my water so we turned to go back to the water fountains before hitting no man's land on the way back to Seneca. Somehow we got lost doing exactly what we'd just done (thanks runner brain) and decided to figure it out along the way. We did make a stop at the Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen on Frankfort Ave. around mile 11 when I couldn't take the thirst anymore. Did I fill up my water bottle with faucet water from the bathroom? Yes I did. It was either that or a puddle. By mile 12 or 13 we were still feeling pretty good which translates to great by long run standards and I attribute that to my nutrition being on point. I'll write about my personal nutrition soon enough but today was one of those perfectly executed moments where I took in all my calories right on time. After that magical 13.1 mark I got into my own head just a little bit for just a second and was really wishing I were done but for the most part the run after mile 3 was all positive. There was more walking that I would have liked but it was all pretty necessary. I wanted to finish still standing and I do have to go to work tomorrow. I refilled my bottle one more time when we got back to the park (I was in for like 48 ounces by this point!) and literally before we knew it we were done! 16 miles. Like a boss. I refilled again so I'd have water for the road and did some stretching which was excruciating then hopped in the car for home.
As I sat in my ice bath eating a fruit roll up and chatting with The Colonel we decided to assess the damage of the day's events. Basically all the usual culprits except for the return of sore toenails (this apparently happens at 16 miles but not 14), a really jacked up left leg and a chafed arm from rubbing against the seam of my shirt. How random. And yes, The Colonel sat in the bathroom and chatted with me as I shivered in the bathtub. This is a normal relationship.
I will unfortunately miss tomorrow's Track Tuesday due to this run...and because of whatever I've done to my leg but as
So what about you? What did you get into this weekend?
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