Sunday, March 11, 2012

Thank you mother nature

I had 22 miles to run this morning and I was semi looking forward to it. At least until I woke up to the torrential down pour of rain outside. The whole spring forward thing also threw me for a loop. I had every intention of hitting the ground running @ 6:30 am so that I could make it the St. Paddy's run to cheer on some friends. I estimated that if I stayed on my target pace of 8:00-8:30/miles I would need 2:56 to complete my easy 22 miler. When I looked outside at about 6:00 am I realized that it was still awfully dark out there. Me being a complete scaredy cat about running in the dark decided to crawl back into bed. I was also hoping that the rain would stop....it didn't.

When I finally made it out the door @ 10:45 it was still raining. Yuck. the first couple of miles were brutal. My left leg hurt, but after stopping and stretching it out it seemed to feel better. I was actually contemplating calling it a day 1.5 miles into my run, but instead I trucked on. I told myself if my leg started to bother me again, I would stop. With this in mind I ran my 22 miles in several loops that were close to my house.

I ran my first 5 miles and looped back to my house because I needed to discard my soaked gloves and rain coat. By this point I was in my zone and feeling spectacular. The rest of the run felt pretty good despite the weather conditions. I stayed on target pace and actually had to slow down a lot because I was dipping into the high 7:50 range.

At mile 13.5 I decided to take my first gel. I purchased some peanut butter GU at REI on Saturday and I was pretty excited to try it. It was amazing! It tasted exactly like peanut butter to me and I love PB! I brought 2 gels with me, but I didn't need the second one. I also brought water and gatorade with me. I only took a couple of sips from my water, but drank all of the gatorade. I haven't run with gatorade before, but with the issues I have been having with swelling (I am a salty sweater) I figured it might be wise to be ingesting more electrolytes.

My overall time was 2:55:53 (7:59 pace). I am ecstatic that I ran 55.25 miles over the course of the week!!!
This next week I don't plan on running any extra miles because I think my body needs a break after 3 weeks of 50 + miles. I think that 45-50 miles should be a good target. I have another 22 miler next Sunday that will involve some threshold running. Ideally I would like to be rested up for that.

Right now I feel pretty good, just rocking my pink CEP compression sleeves. I might be wearing them to work tomorrow under my pants. :-)


Questions for you:

Is anyone else a "salty sweater"?
Have a you called it a day a couple of miles into a long run?
Did anyone else have a long run this weekend? How did it go?


--Tasha

4 comments:

  1. Super job on that 22 miler! I am very impressed you take ONE gel during that whole run! Me, I'm downing about every 45 minutes; I'm so freaked I'm going to crash if I don't. Kudos to you!

    I've done loops around my neighborhood before...I always have to explain myself to people if you're out in the yard or something. Hehe.

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  2. Awesome run Tasha. And good for you for getting out there in that rain. I wouldn't be able to do it. I'd probably wait all day until I found a clear spot to do it. You are running really strong and on track for a great marathon!!

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  3. Wow did we have similar weeks! I did a 22 over the weekend and topped off at just over 55 miles. Your pace had mine beat though on the long one! Nice work and nice way to motivate after putting it off for a while in the morning.

    Peanut butter GU? Must investigate!

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  4. Big smile on my face for you!!

    Laughed a little when you said you almost called it quits at 1.5... didn't you just comment on my run when I said that same thing :)

    You are amazing! And inspiring!

    I'm a crazy salty sweater and after bonking a couple years ago after a run, I'm very diligent about fueling and hydrating.

    And peanut butter GU?? Oh my!

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