And 9 more to go

Sunday marked the beginning of a new week and a new record.  I ran 17 very long miles and if you don't think that's far, well, to me, it was never ending.  I think it was a combination of not running the long run last week and having a head cold.  The first 8 miles were going well, right at the pace we usually go, chatting, the regular running routine.  I was really holding out until mile 8 before I ate any gummi bears, because I didn't want to get too used to them too early.  Along with the gummies, I brought a belvita soft cookie, which proved to be fairly hard to eat, while I was literally on the run.  Since we were running low on water, we stopped to refill our bottles, and I'm pretty sure that's when everything became an issue.  I managed to push through miles 9 and 10 fairly well, didn't loose too much speed.  But suddenly at mile 12, I hit it.  Call it whatever you want, the wall, the blerch, exhaustion, whatever, but I hit it hard.  Suddenly those last 5 miles seemed to stretch on forever.  I fell back from the two I was running with and dropped my pace down to around an 11/11:30 minute mile.  Considering we've been training at around a 10, that's a big drop.  Especially since I made 15 just two weeks ago, coming in at an average of 10:14.  We stopped again for waters at mile 15, and by then I was seriously contemplating just walking the last two miles.  Everything hurt, more than it usually does.  My legs were burning from the toes to the hips. I did end up walking for a minute between more than a few miles overall, which is something I normally try hard to avoid.  Needless to say, I had the worst run I've had in a long time.  It was one of those runs that challenges everything you think about wanting to run a marathon and makes you seriously consider giving up.  Even with the encouragement from my running partners and later from Ryan, I was pretty doubtful that I wanted to keep this up.  But, as a new day dawned and I spent 6 hours sitting in a professional development on writing, I knew I had to keep going.  There's only 69 days left before the marathon.  If I can make it through these last days and finish that marathon, I'll never have to worry about it again, unless I want to.  If I give up now, I'll always have that in the back of my mind.  What kind of example would I be setting for my students, if I was telling them to never quit when I had done just that?  So, next weekend, I'll be back out there, doing a shorter long run, and the weekend after that, I'll be out there doing 20 miles.  And once you get through 20, what's 6.2 more really?

Here's my splits and overall from yesterday. If you go and check out my connect, let me explain something real quick. The 14 something split is from when we actually stopped to wait for someone to get the water, instead of jogging on, like we did for the first water break.  When I said I slowed down to an 11 something pace, I wasn't kidding.  But to me, the 11 pace felt like a 15.  That shows how bad it really was.

Past the half-way mark

Yesterday morning we did our long run.  Our schedule called for 15 miles, which means I have officially made it past the half-way mark!  Last week was 13.1, exactly half-way, so this is the big time now.  It sort of feels like 11 more will be nothing, but at the same time, seems like I can never take another single step after 15.  So, we'll see how that goes.  Last week I also ran 26 miles over the course of 6 days.  Actually, I ran over 26 miles, but not enough to really add it on.
As for the actual marathon, I think the biggest challenge is going to be staying fueled.  On the run yesterday I ate breakfast beforehand, a coffee and belvita.  That's my basic breakfast before every run, so I see no need to change it now.  Usually I can make it at least 6 before starting to feel like I'm slowing down or running low on energy, and yesterday was no different.  It's the next set of miles that always seem to be longer, less fun, more torturous, and I think it's due to the lack of incoming fuel.  I had some gummy bears and some sports beans, but they really don't cut it.  For longer runs, I think I need actual food sources, maybe granola bars or similar.   The thing is, I'm no really sure what to eat and I have no way to carry it with me either.  It's hard enough trying to drink water or eat gummy bears while running, so I can't imagine trying to eat a full granola bar or snack in the middle of a run.  But, I know I have to figure something out, because I need something more for the last miles.  Especially if I have 11 more to go.  I know the marathon itself will have snack stops, but I want to be used to eating light snacks in the middle of a run before I try it for the actual marathon. I think I have some research to do.
In completely unrelated news, we've had an old RCA Victor Victrola stereo sitting in our house since we moved in last year.  It belongs to my father, so we've just kind of been using it as a really large shelf.  This past weekend though I decided to find out if the record player portion actually worked.  Turns out, it does.  So I went back home and got some records and now it's like 1970 all over again in this house.  Here's a photo of some of the records I took, and a link to my Garmin connect for my 15 mile run.

                      
Oh yea, my watch starting telling me my battery was really low at mile 14, so I picked up some speed just to be sure I could finish before the watch died.   Good incentive actually, it brought my pace back up to a 10 minute mile. Also, Adidas has a new shoe out, the Springblade.  They look amazing, but are way out of my price range.  So, if anyone from Adidas ever stumbles upon this blog, feel free to send a pair my way, 7.5 is fine.  I'd be more than happy to test them out and wear them around to all my races/training runs.  As you can see from previous blog entries, I'm a big Adidas fan, so it would totally be worth your time.

Rad Marathon Training

I've been so busy being RAD and doing summer activities that I've been slacking on the blog again.  When I say being RAD, I'm not being full of myself, I'm merely referencing the Color Me Rad run I did this past weekend.  Last year I did the Color Run, which was basically the same race.  The only difference, besides location, was the efficiency of the race.  Last year, the parking for the race was far enough away that people needed to be bused to and from the parking lot.  Unfortunately, there was a major accident on 495 that day, which ended up holding up traffic for hours.  A lot of people spent more time waiting for the bus than they did running the race, myself included.  So while the race was fun, I wasn't really interested in going back to that particular course again.  Color Me Rad was in Brockton and there were no parking or traffic issues.  We got in, we ran, had some fun, and left.  Since we ran as a team, and every team needs a theme, we decided to run as Jem and the Holograms.  I must say, we looked fantastic.  People were hating all over the place.  We started off nice and clean but by the end, we were hardly recognizable.  It was a good time though and I'd definitely do it again next year.
Marathon training is coming along.  I don't really know if it's going great, or terribly.  We did 13.1 last night, just over 2 hours, but I wasn't too happy by the end.  My entire lower body was sore.  I honestly had a moment of panic in wondering how I can possibly run another 13.1 after that, when I felt like I couldn't possibly take another step at the end.  Today, in an effort to get used to running on tired legs, I went out for a 6 mile run.  But I went at 1 pm, which was possibly the worst choice, as the weather was hot and humid, and the sun was out.  Nevertheless, I made it 5 before I decided it was best if I walked the final mile.  The 5 took me about 44 minutes.  Not bad I suppose. Next weekend our long run ups to 15, so I need to mentally prepare for that.  I think I also need to figure out a fuel for the middle of the run. The sports beans are good, but I feel like they're not cutting it for what I need.  Burning sugar and carbs isn't going to be enough.  I need to be able to sustain the muscle power for the other half. So any suggestions on that would be helpful.
The Wednesday night runs are still going strong.  We've taken to having a little party in the parking lot afterwards, usually margs and chips. Don't knock it til you try it, it's fun, cheap, and a nice way to see everyone for a little bit.  Ryan also bought me a Garmin Forerunner 10 GPS watch.  I'm pretty pumped about it, because I was getting sick of using my phone for everything.  I knew I'd need something for the marathon anyways, because I didn't want to use my phone and drain the battery.  I'd prefer to have the battery at least halfway charged, in case of emergency.  I love the watch and it's been great, but I did notice that I've already started a new habit that I need to break.  When I know I'm getting close to the last mile, I can't help but keep looking at the watch every few seconds and watching the time tick away.  That's going to make everything seem so much harder, so I really need to stop.  If you want to view my new routes, you can check me out on Garmin connect, awwie15.  Now you're all caught up, so here are some pics.  Enjoy.

Wednesday nigh parking lot party

Enjoying our parking lot party

Before. So clean

Porta-potty shot, a race pre-req.

After

I was caught mid-color bombing!