If I pull off next week's "long run" in my training plan, I'll be a the half way mark in my training plan: 13.1 miles. It's a little exciting to be back at the half marathon mark again, but scary because I eventually have to run two of those...back to back.
This past Saturday was a 10.5 mile
fun run. And actually, I jogged about the same distance the Saturday before. Night and day difference in how I felt before, during, and after, too. Last week, I felt I was near heat exhaustion. At every water fountain, I didn't just drink, I doused. I had slept in, which put me at a start of around 11 AM, about when my end time was for this past Saturday. There can be almost a 20 degree difference in temperature if you start at dawn, so yeah, that was an unnecessary stress. Last week's long run was bad enough that I paid another visit to my physical therapist to have someone check on my cranky body. Seems I'm doing about the same, but she gave more stretches to do, which I should be doing now, but idle hands... tend to blog. Actually, today I sort of crashed. I got a bit of cross training in, which is what I should be doing on Sundays, but beyond that, I've done nothing but eat. Could it be that I finally came down from my runner's high from yesterday?
A
Runner's High tends to happen to me when I've done all that I can do to prepare, and then have the run/jog/walk of my life. That's what happened to me yesterday for my long run. I carb-loaded the day before, got an adequate amount of sleep, ate the right foods the morning of, stayed hydrated, and started the run early in the day. Then, all the planets aligned. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't completely with out error. My knees are starting to bother me some during the runs (it's a song and dance I know well), and I do walk here and there (mainly to rest my knees). Shame on me for putting my knees through this, I guess. I'll probably have needs of a 70-year-old when it's all said and done with (
serves you right you whipper snapper!).
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| Sad but true |
But afterwards, I felt as if I had more energy to expel than I did when I started. Very strange. I was almost suspicious of that feeling because I hadn't felt that in a long while. I got home and continued my runner's routine of a cool down, protein load, stretching, all that, but then I proceeded to do chores. Had it been the week before and I would have still had ice on my knees and lay sprawled out on the floor. I eventually fell asleep for two hours; an awesome afternoon nap, but I didn't feel like that was my only option. I could have kept going, but wanted rest up for late evening plans.
Completing a half this next weekend with no injury and no whining will be a vast improvement from the last time I ran a half (in 2010). Vast. I'm not going to think about how every other long run after it will be uncharted waters for me, and that my three week vacation coming up will probably set me back at least two weeks in my training plan. Nah, I built in about three weeks of cushion in my training plan to allow for "accidents" and "laziness" to happen, as long as those things are temporary.
