Okay, so I know it's been a little while since I posted anything on here. I have a valid reason this time though - my internet hasn't been working. So, what have we missed? Our last two Saturday runs have been of the 12 mile variety but next week we step up to 14 miles. As these last two runs have showed me it's time that I actually get serious about my running if I really want to try for a sub-3.5 hour finish.
Saturday, July 31, 2009.
Not my best run by any stretch of the imaginition. With a combination of poor decisions and bad luck I officially had my first run that I really struggled with during this training. Friday night I decided to forgo any sort of decent dinner and just eat chili dogs...just let me tell you, this is not an appropriate food to eat the night before a long run! After my delicious and oh so healthy dinner I had no desire to go to bed at a decent time so I watched a little (or a lot) or T.V. and fell asleep about 1am. Needless to say when my alarm went off at 4:15 I wasn't ready to get up and I thought I hit the snooze button. Unfortunately I discovered at 5:45 that I had actually hit the unplug the alarm clock button! After a mad dash around my apartment I hurried downtown to arrive at our starting point about 30 minutes late. Since the rest of my team had already started their runs, I just took off on my run, abandoning any sort of warm-up/stretching/eating/drinking before leaving for a brisk 12 mile run. Thankfully we do have aid stops along the way because I would never have made it otherwise. I wrapped up with a 1 hour and 42 minute run, about 12 minutes above where I really want to be.
Saturday, August 8, 2009.
Now this run started off much better than my last. I succeeded in eating carbs the night before, drank plenty of water, and although I played some rockband with a couple of friends, I managed to get in bed and asleep before 10:30. I even successfully got to our starting point in time to join my team at the start of our run. I took off thinking this was going to be a pretty good run.
As a soccer player I have no shortage of shorts lying around my room and while some are heavier and some are bigger than others I usually don't try too hard to grab a specific pair of shorts before I run. I do have some specially made "running shorts" but I had been having issues with keeping them tight enough on my waist so I opted for a pair soccer shorts instead. Unfortunately, to chagrin, and my teammates amusement, I did not grab the right pair of shorts. Somewhere around mile 7/8 my shorts had reached their saturation point, not an unusual occurance, even at 6am in Louisiana during the summer. What I failed to realize until that point was that even these shorts were a bit loose around the waist. For the next couple of miles I was pulling my shorts back up every 15-20 steps and by the time I finished mile 10 I was running with a hand attached to my shorts to keep them from falling all the way off. Luckily I managed to catch up with the ladies training for the half marathon and after they all got a good laugh at my shorts falling off repeatedly I decided to finish my 12 miles at an easy run/walk pace to keep my shorts up around my waist.
Next week: 14 miles!
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