As you can see 5.5 miles is not 15. The ever-ellusive 15 miler seems to be the theme for the week. Life and Lulu seem to be getting in the way.
To someone reading this, this may seem funny. Go ahead and laugh if you want. After my pace run Friday, I didn't post everything that happened. I didn't want to complain or make excuses. Soon after I came home, I stubbed my left big toe. This was on the new tile I laid down about a week ago (isn't that a theme to these blogs? I've read at least two blogs where people have recently laid tile. We must be fast running tile-layers.). So what about this toe? Well after I cleaned off the blood, and there was a lot of it, I saw that I had several layers of skin missing from the end of my toe. Basically, the end of my toe is missing, and it was looking quite ugly. My first thought was "there goes my 15 mile run." So since I have a pretty good knowledge of first aid and great supplies, I doctored it up. I sterilized it and placed Second Skin on the end and wrapped it up nicely with athletic tape. It looked beautiful, and the pain was much less. "Ah, 15 miles is doable now!" As you can read it was not to be. But not because of the toe.
After about 4 hours of sleep because I was wound up and also my toe hurt in every position I put it in, I got up at 4am. I went out at 4:45am to run 15 miles in the cool of the day, about 80 degrees and 95 percent humidity. I ran the first mile and was feeling great. It turns out too great because I was running much faster that I should have been -- but this was not my undoing. After each mile, I normally take 2-3 gulps from my Camelbak which is filled with my concoction of energy drink (Hammer Nutrition Products). After mile 1, I drank and thought "hhhhmmmmm, that tastes funny." I talked myself into believing it was because I had just had a buckwheat waffle drowned in maple syrup for breakfast. Since the drink does not have simple sugars, I talked myself into believing the slightly sour taste was because of my sweet breakfast. By mile 2, it still tasted funny, and I was burping and a bit more awake. The contents of my Camelbak had been in the freezer and then refrigerator for a week since I didn't make my last long run. I don't like to waste things, and I thought it would be ok. I need to stop thinking and just throw it out next time. It turns out, it was slightly fermented. I could have run the 15 and trashed my body and ended up slightly drunk (I drink socially extremely rarely). I decided to run 5 or 6 and call it a day. I found out later, I was running about 30-40 seconds per mile faster than I should have been anyway. I could have come home and made more and started again, but it was not to be. It was pure torture to run home with 3 pounds of water on my back and not able to drink it. I was pretty dehydrated when I got home. Wildbull posted about old water in his Camelbak a couple of weeks ago -- perhaps I should have paid closer attention and learn from his mistake.
Toe feels fine as long as I have it wrapped. The plan is to run 15 tomorrow, Sunday morning. |