Mid-week Wrap Up

So after that "great" 18 mile run, I really never felt like running again.

And my body felt the same way.  Tuesday came, and my blood pressure plummeted (a female thing).  When you have heart disease and stroke in your family history, doctors aren't too keen on finding something to raise your blood pressure.  Mine is usually low-normal, but once a month it plummets.  And that came on Tuesday.  I got home from work and went to bed, as I was too tired, dizzy and faint to do much else.  At 4am Wednesday I woke up with a stellar migraine.  Awesome!  So no run there.  And Thursday we had a date to go to a Bell's Beer Christmas Dinner.  It was awesome.  But again, no run.

Bell's Beer Dinner at Big Tex

So Saturday came and I got up and went for a run. It was 40 degrees and didn't look to get up past 43 for the next few hours, so 2 shirts and a hat.  Then I was on my way.  I ran to the back of the prison and then up Crack Way.  Before I got to the Crack Stop, I could smell that many people obviously thought Georgia had passed the pro-marijauna law.  It was 745 but these 3 dudes were as happy as could be.  It made me giggle.  They were very friendly and in a sharing mood, which I politely declined. 

On Graffiti Alley, the lady at the Church Marta Stop asked me if I had lost weight.  I wish the answer was yes...lol.

The rest of the run was non-exciting.  I thought I was running a decent time.  When I got home, yes it was...10 minutes faster than any other 9 mile run. 

Yesterday was hill runs.  For whatever reason it took over an hour to get to the gym.  I didn't want to go.  But then I saw a cookie on the side of the road.  WTF?

Don't you always see a Chocolate Chip Cookie in a Cowboy Hat on the way home from work?

For some reason that made me go to the gym.  I'm not sure what was up with my run.  I was supposed to run 4 or 5 (I picked 5) hills at Incline 4 at 5K pace for .25 miles each (did that make sense?).  I did 1 and 2 and thought I would die.  I got through 3.  I really wanted to go sleep.  Who the hell wants to sleep while running a hill?  At Hill 4 I had to lower the incline to 3.5 and slow down.  All I thought about was my pillow.  I couldn't even contemplate doing another incline.  So I did my cool down.  Yeah, I sucked. 

This morning I got up and went back to the gym.  I had 5 to run.  My gym is 24hr/7d, but not always manned (key card entry).  When I pulled into the lot, it was completely empty.  For some reason, I thought about getting towed.  Anyway I went in.  The trainer was saying good bye to someone.  It was 515!  What time did they work out?   I realized I forgot my water but I had my Gatorade, so all was ok.  The warm-up seemed way too fast.  It was a minute slower than usual.

So I started my run.  At a little after .7 miles a strange guy comes into the gym (meaning he isn't wearing gym clothes).  The trainer is talking to him.  So I take off my headphones (there is only 1 other person besides us there).  The trainer's first language isn't English and sometimes he is a little hard to understand.  They both yell something at me.  The trainer asks if I drive a big truck.  I realize the guy is the tow truck man.  I say yes, the tow truck man says he'll take the boot off my car, and off he leaves. The trainer gives me an ok sign, and I kind of wonder if my car will be there when I finish. Miles 1-3 were really easy, both in my mind and on my HR.  I decide to speed it up for the last 2.  Still nothing that seemed strenous.  Mile 4 comes.  The trainer comes over. Now I know my run was easy because we had a conversation while I was running for 2 minutes.  He wanted to let me know he was calling the owner of the gym because he was concerned how the tow truck guy got in to the gym (it is always locked unless you have a key card).  And if the owner needed to call me, could he?  I'm kind of glad he waited until then to ask me all of this, because that freaked me out.  I know I run on a TM next to the doors that you can only exit from for my own security reasons, but it really didn't occur to me that the tow truck guy didn't have an access pass.  Apparently he wouldn't tell the trainer how he got it.   So that did make my HR go up.  And I finished the 5 miles.  And then I did a cool-down.

After, I walked to my car that was not booted.  The parking lot now had 4 cars in it.  Tow truck man was nowhere in sight.  I got in my car and left.

18 Miles- Why am I torturing myself?

So last time I wrote, I had finished 15 miles.  I'll admit, there was some excitement to run 15 miles.  Longest distance, could I do it, new toys, etc.  The next weekend, I didn't do my Long Run of 7 miles.  I'm not really sure why.  But laying in bed sandwiched by Scuttlebutt and McMenamin seemed to be a much better option.  In fact that's what I pretty much did that whole weekend.

So last week, I ran some hills and ran 4 miles.  I was the evil one and convinced D we needed to drink a beer on Thursday and not run 7 miles.  So we did.  Friday night we ate homemade pizza and prepared for an 18 mile run.  Around 9pm, we went to bed. At 3am I woke up.  I tossed and turned and by 645 decided to get up.  I ate a Clif Bar and 2 bottles of water.  I got ready.  D did the same. Body Glide was liberally applied.  We decided to go to the Silver Comet Trail, so we got everything together and drove over there.  I had another bottle of water on the way, and of course had to use the facilities once we got there.  On the way we discussed using the bathroom during actual race day.  I think if I have to go, I will just have to pee in my pants.  I don't see compression pants going back on after X amount of miles considering swelling and how sweaty my hands get.  D just laughed.  We walked to the start and he said he would see me in 3 hours.  I said more like 5.  His face was priceless.  Without saying a word, he said, "Why did we take one car? What the hell am I supposed to do for 2 hours?  Will I have time to go home and nap?"  And we started the run.

Walk .19 miles: 5:23

Immediately, I had iPod problems.  I got that all fixed and restarted.  My legs felt heavy and slow.  I wasn't really sure why.  Eh, I just need to get warmed up.  When Mile 1 came around, no I really was going slowly. I'm sure it was the iPod adjustment.  Nope.  Mile 2 just as slow.  I decided that it wasn't really bad (the miles were over 15 minutes which since I have been running 13:02 for 7 and 8 miles, I was thrown).  But I decided to just keep the pace rather than try to go faster.  That would be my plan.  Then I started thinking about when I would eat my shot blocks.  Probably around Mile 4, 8 and 12, and the Hammer Gel at 16.  There were mostly bikers out.  It was overcast but not raining.  Kind of a Seattle-like day. I actually did think this because I wondered what the weather was like for my friend I who lives in Seattle.  Anyway I got to Mile 4 ran past the Bike Depot and had 2 Blocks.

Times (Parentheses are my 15 mile times...which makes me see I held a better overall pace for the 18 miler)
Mile 1: 15:20 (14:36)
Mile 2: 15:43 (15:07)
Mile 3: 15:33 (15:08)
Mile 4: 16:06 (14:56)

At Mile 5 I decided I really didn't feel like running anymore. But since I hadn't passed D, I couldn't turn around yet.  At Mile 6 I really wondered why I was doing this.  My thighs had a strong burn on them.  D was returning and passed me at Mile 6.88.  I tried to figure out what mile he was at (11.12).  That depressed me, so I started looking around.  A couple of bikers passed me and said something, then a few more did as well. Since I was in my own world and on the side of the path, I'm not really sure what they said. I passed a place I used to contract at.  I really hated that job.  I really hated me while in that job.  Ah...such is life...each job makes you know what you do and don't want in the next one.  I crossed another road and noticed I was getting cold.  And it was raining.  And more bikers were saying something.  I went to another road crossing and the rain was pouring.  Shit! Now I'm cold, and wet.  The Garmin dinged 8 and I turned around.  I took a Shot  Block.

Mile 5: 15:26 (15:32)
Mile 6: 15:28 (15:33)
Mile 7: 15:24 (15:54)
Mile 8: 15:57 (15:57)

WTF are you doing, AL?  Where are you going to make up 2 miles (I was intending on running 9 and back 9)?  This negative self talk almost made me cry.  My hips were now on fire.  I got to the road crossing and noticed it wasn't raining and that the street itself was flat.  So I turned and decided to run .5 miles out and back to the path.  At least it would be 17 at the end.  I ran and found Patak's Sausage which is pretty famous around the area. I have never been there because the hours are odd (it was closed), but I can tell you how to get there on foot. I got back to the path and decided to go back towards the Out Direction for half a mile.  Sure enough...it started raining again.  In the same place as before.  I got in the halfmile and started my return.  The next 2 miles were just head games of it is only 8 laps around the track, that's nothing.  7 laps.  Easy.  Except I was really hungry.

Mile 9: 15:56 (16:36)
Mile 10: 15:56 (17:00)
Mile 11: 16:14 (17:12)
Mile 12: 16:47 (17:10)

I took another shotblock and told myself, you only have a 10K.  Perhaps I'll call D at the Bike Depot and ask him to pick me up.  My running now was not a walk and not a run.  More of a Slog (Slow Jog).  I got to 13.1 at 3:25, which was faster than my first half, barely.  I about cried when I realized that in a real race I had to go 13.1 more.  I really wondered why I was doing this to myself.  I thought about my friend John who did an IronMan that I don't think even exists anymore because it was so hard (St. George).  He said that all he ran for was the beer.  So I decided to run for beer.  At another road crossing, I texted D that I had 4.5 miles and I was running at an 18 minute pace.  I wasn't but I decided that would give me some leeway.  I decided to run 4 minutes walk 1.  That worked for about 2 cycles.  I would lose track and couldn't remember where I was with that.  So then I just ran 10 minutes, I think.  It seemed to fly by.  I also realized I would feel euphoric (delirious?) at about 1.5 miles after I ate a Clif.  I passed the Bike Depot.  Perhaps the 40 oz of Gatorade on my back was what was making me run so slowly.  I took a walk break but realized my legs hurt a ton more walking than Slogging.  So I went back to Slog mode.  When I did walk I kind of wondered if I was going to be arrested.  I'm sure I was rubbing my thighs and regions around a little too much and a little too hard.  I got to 3 miles right before a tunnel so I took the  Hammer Gel.  It was pretty good.  Very sweet.  12 more laps.

Mile 13: 17:31 (17:43)
Mile 14: 17:24 (17:36)
Mile 15: 16:57 (16:22)


The last 3 miles were pretty much a countdown. I got passed by 2 walkers, which was demoralizing, but I told myself they probably hadn't run 15+ miles.  I really hated the mile markers.  Finally I was to Mile Marker .9.  I decided I would run to Mile Marker .6 and take a break.  Except there is no Mile Marker .6.  So I got to Mile Marker .3. I actually only had .2 left.  I started walking. Then I asked myself what the hell was I doing.  So I started running.  I realized I would be done in less than 5 hours.  I realized I would probably be on the SAG Wagon if I don't learn to speed it up.  I realized if I eat 1 Clif Bar for a 5K run, I probably need at least 2 for an 18 mile run.  And with that, the Garmin beeped.

Mile 16: 17:55
Mile 17: 17:06
Mile 18: 17:55

Total: 4:54:40- 18 miles

I crawled to Mile Marker 0 where D met me with a cold Gatorade.  He was walking pretty normal.  Me not so much. He decided to go get the car to bring to me.  I went to sit down and intense pain went into my knee, so I decided not to sit.  Plus I wasn't sure how I was going to get up.  He brought the car around, and I got in and we decided to go get pizza.  There were Doritos in the car. I ate 24 (yes I counted).  We got to the Interstate and I decided I wanted to go home, which D was cool with.

Crawl (.23): 6:09

We got home.  The Foam Roller...that was my savior.  I actually am walking more normal from 18 than the 15. 


Things learned:
Where Patak's is
Eat 2 Clif Bars
Bring another Shot Block or 2 more Hammer Gels
Silver Comet is incredibly boring (that is more of a remembrance than a learning event)
Take Advil before and after the run
Foam Roller is your friend.