I just got back from a weekend trip to North Carolina wherein I didn’t do any running but I did traverse a spread-out zoo and Tanglewood Park in the heat. I missed my long run, so this morning I put it in. I set out to do 22 miles but I couldn’t do more than 17.52, which I’m telling myself is OK. I am deciding my recent mindset hasn’t been constructive, and I want to have a better mindset as I move forward toward this year’s marathon goals.
For this run, my mind stayed on the goal of 22 miles though my body started to deteriorate so I wasn’t able to support that goal. I did, however, get in two whole loops and one sans loop. While not 22, it’s still a long run.
Injurywise, in my left foot I felt in the big toe joint some discomfort in the last few miles that made me think about stress fractures. And I ran with a stitch in my right abs for quite a while. The temperature, though, made for pretty decent running for two loops at 75 and the last loop at 78 with rather low humidity around 40%. I got this run in before what is supposed to heat up to about 95 today.
In explaining the slow pace of 8:24s, I was pretty even for the first two loops, choosing to go a slow, steady pace. My pace increased in latter miles partially because I didn’t have Auto Resume on so it kept running when I stopped for water breaks sometimes lasting 30 seconds. I didn’t have pasta last night and I’d consumed a considerable amount of junklike food over the weekend so that may have made some kind of impact. Interestingly, I had a lot of salt build up on my arms after this run. I also lost 5 lbs, going from 175 lbs this morning before my run to 170 lbs after, with hydration.
Afterwards, I had some Naked Juice Protein Shake and an ice bath. I also ate some edamame.