So, I had the genius idea to wait until naptime on Sunday to do my 14-mile run. Chris had already gone on Saturday, so Ben I went together. As always, 50 yards into the run, he went off and left me. I do not use music when I run; so this was going to be a long and lonely 14 miles. It was a beautiful (and mild) 70* day, but there is no shade on this route, except about a 1-mile stretch. And I planned poorly for this one... no hat, no sunglasses, no headband. I did, however, remember sunscreen. Yay for no skin cancer!
I did not know what to expect tummy-wise during the run since I always run in the morning, and I always eat pretty much the same thing in my efforts to stop my problem after long runs. I had a whole wheat waffle with peanut butter and banana with coffee for breakfast, and a turkey salad for lunch at about 1:00 (lunch is always way late on Sundays!).
We started the run between 2:30 and 2:45. I took my two 10 oz bottles in my belt, one with water and one with Spark. I also took my usual Marathon Bar.
The first 2 miles were painful... literally... let me explain:
after the 18 miler, (last weekend), I started having crazy low-spine pain. I thought that it was because I sat on our driveway for a while that same day, but realized quickly that it was more than that. I have a friend who is a chiropractor, so I went to see him on Monday, and he gave me lots of advice and made lots of adjustments to my lower back, knees and feet. The thing he stressed the most to me was icing after the long runs. I had quite a bit of relief over the next few days.
So I was not happy when I started feeling the same pain in the beginning of this run, but it soon faded, and I felt fine the rest of the run. I tried to be conscious of trying to keep my hips tucked under and not sticking my tail out. I know that poor posture has contributed to the problem.
I stopped at 5.75 miles at the usual park to refill my drinks. I ate most of the Marathon Bar when I started back up. I was so happy when I finally reached 7 miles... the first 7 seemed to take forever!
I got back to the park just before reaching 9 miles, and I stopped again to top-off my waters since there is no other fountain from there on. I felt like I needed to take a short walking break, so I started my GPS back up, but I was walking. I didn't watch the time, I just walked until I felt like it was enough... I'd guess it was about 2 minutes.
Before I knew it, I hit 12 miles! I came to a busy intersection and had to wait a while to cross safely, so I finished the last 1/4 of the Marathon Bar. The last 2 miles were not fun. All I could think about was how 16 and 18 miles seemed easier and less painful than this one! Oh well... I finished. But like I said, I will never run that far that late in the day again.
My stomach did not feel so great the rest of the day, but it wasn't debilitating like it has been sometimes. So far, so good!
Ben finished right about 15 minutes after me... he had run 18 miles. He said it was brutal for him yesterday, too.
This weekend is our biggie: 20 miles!!! Don't know how or when we are going to do it, but I have to do it in order to feel confident enough to register for the race... did I just admit that?
Nope, I haven't registered yet... oh, and, I didn't ice.
No comments:
Post a Comment