Month: August 2010

Okay, I did not want to do my long run today. I was bored by the idea of running 20 miles in Central Park. Granted, part of this boredom was fear of the energy expenditure needed to complete the task, definitely related to my problematic week in terms of running wherein I dashed out only one run, albeit of a longer distance. I was afraid I’d fail during the run today, feel humiliated by my inability, and just plain hate the run. Indeed, it wasn’t very fun, but I did pull it off, a crusade in conditioning my brain to continue despite the desire to quit.

In the quest to alleviate boredom, I mixed up my course. Usually for this type of run I’d do three loops then a lower loop; for this run, I did a loop, then the lower loop, then two loops. Not much of a mix-up, but I was planning–planning to overcome the aggravation of having to do another 1.7 miles after doing 18+ in loops.

The weather wasn’t helping my boredom. For the entire run, it was cloudy. Cloudly is bland for me. Give me sunny skies or night over cloudy. The temperature was decent at 76 for most of my run, 77 toward the end, with wind that I noticed only really on the west side of the park. The humidity was not really noticeable but there around 65%. It was enough to hold me back from just going.

However, I did “just go” in the beginning of this run, a sign of something. For my first mile I knocked off a 6:58. The second was slower but decent at 7:16, followed by another speedy 7:02. Comparing with last year, it seems I’m considerably behind in my training, but last year I had a 20-mile run “next weekend” and ran it slower than I did this run. To wit, that run was a 5K race plus 17 miles in the park a little later, but the conditions were about the same though even more humid. In today’s run, I was recalling that dismal training run.

My legs were really dragging not even a full loop done. While I fought off a guy trying to pass me for some distance, I hit the water fountain and he passed me. I resumed at a considerably slower speed. I didn’t catch him until he stopped to walk, then he passed me again toward his finish. The point wasn’t to race today; the point was to log 20 miles. If I maintained that pace much longer, 20 miles would not have come to me today.

Despite dragging, there were no injuried to report. I had a Gatorade bar just before–they seem to be quite helpful. During, I had two PowerGels in my second and third loops around E. 90th, just before the water foundtains. I stopped a few times for water. While the first PowerGel seemed to help me on Great Hill, the second didn’t seem to help me at all as I was poooooped. Despite that feeling and intermittent bouts of desiring to walk (more toward the beginning), I used my brain to fight off the desire and keep it “one foot in front of the other.” That’s pure training, training the mind.

Upon finishing, I had some kind of sushi wrap of mostly veggies, some coconut water, and a Gatorade protein drink. (Yum.) I also made an ice bath and I felt a bit more tolerant of it, though I was much more vocal. I discovered that my drain doesn’t perfectly seal so I need to fill my tub more than necessary to ensure my legs get covered in painful ice water.

I gotta step it up.

I like running two “sans loops” in Central Park. Remember that “sans loop” is my term for a loop without Great Hill. I did two sans loops today, totaling a mileage of 10.52. In 85-degree weather with 50% humidity, over that distance I ran 7:25s (not bad!), which I accomplished in 1:18:09. My splits were generally around the 7:30 range, with some exceptionally fast miles coming in at 7:05 and 7:04. (The first may have been a hiccup after hitting stop to go on a bathroom break.) And I did 8.0 miles in 59:28, by my watch. Here are the deets, which I’m posting late because I forgot to do my blog entry before bed:

Nothing injury-related to report, though earlier today in new shoes I felt a twinge in my left foot, roughly equivalent to plantar fasciitis pain. We’ll see about that and those shoes!

I had hoped to get this run out yesterday, but much to my dismay, I downloaded a horrible virus on my computer and ended up pissing away my free time on a pricy tech support call that culminated in the recommendation to back up what files I can and reinstall the operating system tomorrow. I did all the time-intense backup as I passed out, and I got up early this morning to commence the dreaded reinstall. Fortunately, though, the tech support technician was able to make a relatively easy fix and get around the problem. And I was able to get some of the tech support charges refunded! Not to mention, many of my files backed up.

So life and crisis got in the way of yesterday’s training, which I just bumped to today. I used Gatorade’s 01 bars in the last couple days, and notably just before today’s run. VERY TASTY! And I used Gatorade’s 03 vanilla protein shake after today’s run. Also pretty tasty. Also had a protein shake of my own concoction, but I couldn’t drink the whole blasted thing. Did I mention drinking a lot of coconut water, too? God, I love that stuff cold. (I was drenched in sweat after today’s run.)

Still on Naproxen 500, which I’m avoiding taking before my runs. Have a few more days to go on that. And I’m wearing my compression socks to bed. In the meantime, I’m wondering, Can I make 10.5 miles my new standard? It’s fun to run.

Just shy of running 16 miles this evening in Central Park. I did 3 “sans loops”–that is, full loops sans Great Hill. I even added the East Drive feeder entrance to the park as my finish! But I only ended with 15.98. No worries, though, because my training schedule recommended 15 miles.

I ran 7:46s for 2:04:10. It seems I’m close to my level of training last year, only it’s a bit hard to compare because I had generally faster times last year but also better temperatures. Tonight’s 76 apparently had about 70% humidity but honestly it felt pretty cool the whole way. It wasn’t one of those miserably humid days but quite nice. Here are tonight’s deets:

My body was fairly cooperative, only barely feeling a grabbing sensation in my left ankle. But anywhere from 3 to 7 bugs entered my mouth during this run. I was hocking up a storm, not always because of bugs but sometimes. I stopped a few times for water and consumed on 1x caffeine PowerGel, which did seem to kick in. My splits were a little up and down though I generally felt fast; it’s interesting when it’s dark that I feel faster than sometimes my Garmin reveals.

At home, I took a weak ice bath (I made it wrong, adding the ice while the water was running–warming the ice–but also not having enough water to cover my full legs). I also had one of my better protein smoothies, figuring out that I need to have the soft ingredients at the bottom of my amazing blender and the hard ingredients near the top. Now I feel I’ve mastered it! I also had some refreshing coconut water, and I’m continuing to crave it.

As I’m typing this, I’m now eating Haagen-Dazs Cranberry Blueberry sorbet. Pretty yummy. I theoretically earned it; I burned over 2,200 calories in tonight’s run!