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.