A very long run

This past week has its ups and downs. Some of my runs were good with the much anticipated semi-cooler weather and rain and some runs were not so great. The kids were really hard on me this week. Everyone was suffering from head colds and then a nasty stomach virus. So the little ones were pretty grumpy this week which made it difficult to enjoy my workouts with the sick kids in tow.

Despite all that, I planned and ran my longest run to date. Saturday morning I ran 17 miles! It was a humbling experience to say the least. My runs have been fairly easy for me so far except for some logistical issues. The actual running has been doable. But this run was really hard! I started out with less rest than I had planned on, so that made it harder. Plus I was still fighting the end of that head cold. My run started about 8 am and the weather was shaky. It was cool but rainy. My route was planned and I had plenty of restroom and fluid refill stop options. I really did not feel like it was an "A" game day for me, I just felt tired and worn out, but I went anyway. I got rained on a bit which I really did not mind until I almost slipped and fell in mud, got my running shoes covered in mud and had to stop and scrape them off on the side of a rock to keep from slipping. Minus that, the first 8 miles were OK with only one restroom stop. Then at about 10 miles my knees started feeling soar so I decided to stop and get some Advil which helped a lot. At about mile 15 I started feeling a cramp in my upper thigh/lower butt. It was VERY painful. I had never felt this before. The last 2 miles were very difficult with the cramp. I slowed way down and stopped to stretch a few times but it was pretty bad. My plan was only to run 16 but I ended up running 17 because my Nike IPod mile tracker thingy went haywire on me and it told me I had one more mile when I was finished at 16. I trusted it and ran that extra mile. BLAHHH!!!! I was pretty unhappy when I got home and plugged it into my computer and it was wrong on the mileage. I guess its OK, at least I know I can run that far. I ran it at an average pace of 10 min/mile. I was OK with that at this point especially with my cramp at the end. After that run I never felt so soar, tired and hungry! I iced everything down, took a cool shower and gave myself a bio freeze rubdown (kinda like icy hot but way better).

Since then, I feel like I just cant catch up on my rest, hydration and energy. It really kicked my ass!!! Running this marathon is going to be very hard. Not that I did not know this before, its just now I experienced some of it for real and it was humbling. I am not discouraged just humbled at the sheer mental and physical exhaustion that that long of a run puts you through. I just have to mentally prepare myself and make sure I am better rested before my long runs. The short runs are always enjoyable and they make me feel great, but runs longer that 14 miles or so make you go to a place that you don't have to go very often mentally.

Despite the difficulties I am experiencing, I am still very happy I decided to so this. I am learning a lot about myself psychologically and emotionally in this process. I am learning things I never thought I would.

As far as my "butt" cramp (lol) it happened again this evening on my short run and I need to figure out why. I am going to do some research on what I need to do to make it better. Last week I ran a total of 46 miles. This week I am going to scale back my miles to give my body some rest and try to heal my muscle cramp issues.

Thanks for reading my blog.......happy running!