Week of February 5, 2012:
Sunday: Long run!
Sometimes I get done running, and it feels like, What just happened?!? I feel a little disoriented and my body doesn’t feel like my own. It feels possessed by fatigue and soreness, and it starts demanding carbohydrates and water, stat. Today was one of those runs.
It wasn’t a bad run, not by any means. I had 80 minutes on the calendar, and I felt reasonably confident that it would go well because my long runs have been going smoothly—no injuries or even painful soreness or fatigue the next day. And it did go well until about 40-50 minutes into the run, when my hips started feeling sore. It was fatigue-sore, not injury-sore, so I kept running. I hit the 55-minute mark, and I thought, I need to walk. My hips need a break.
So I walked. I reminded myself that the goals for this half-marathon training season are 1) to go the distance at the race and 2) to re-establish a running habit for spring. A little walking during a long run doesn’t hurt either of those goals. And yet…I haven’t been walking during my long runs, so I felt bad about doing it today. When you stop to walk, it’s tempting to not finish the run, too, but at that point, I only had 15 minutes left on the clock (I walked at the 65-minute mark), which felt tough but do-able.
I did a final loop around my neighborhood, through the dog park and back toward home. It was hard—sometimes those last few minutes are the absolute worst part of a run. But I finished, and now I know I have 80 minutes and 8+ miles under my feet. I’m anxious about running 90 minutes next weekend, but so it goes in the running life.
How were your latest long runs, my March half-marathoning friends? A breeze, a grind, something in between?
I just had a 9 mile run on Sunday. I was absolutely fine through 8, just cruising along. That last mile was killer, my legs felt like logs, my left ankle throbbed and my breathing was erratic. Hopefully this is just breaking the body in to that distance, because I don't know if I could do that every week.
ReplyDeleteOof! What's the distance for your next long run? For that reason, I usually like to repeat long-run distances once before adding more. For example, a month might contain four long runs of 8 miles, 8 miles, 9 miles, and 9 miles for the long runs. But this time, I'm adding another mile (10 minutes) each week, so this weekend I'm supposed to run for 90 minutes. I'm scared!
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