The Long Run

Felt like forever since I last ran. Tues and Wed I couldn't run on the treadmill since it was locked off until 7:30, Thu was 6:00am flight and travel all day, Fri and Sat were Miami trip w the boys. I could have fit another run in on one of those days but it's been a while since I've had a real cut back. This morning's run did not feel easy but it was nice to finally get out and run.

Happy Easter!

faster than yesterday but still a little tough going, but I think I'm fully done with any jet lag now. Started out later than usual because I'm taking the day off and felt some sun which I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot of on Saturday.

Ran at the Y with the Striders. At the start I felt incapable of running 6 miles, much less at any sort of decent pace. But, once I started felt better right away. No intervals today but did steadily increase the pace. Weather was nice and cool.

Decided to sleep in a bit and not meet for the 5:30 run. Little by little I felt back to normal by the end of the run. Did the t-route in the neighborhood.

Easy run around the neighborhood. I felt great at the start, felt ok at the end. I was just looking for something easy, maybe should have kept it a little bit shorter, oh well.

I wore new shoes today, Asics Cumulus which felt so amazingly cushiony  compared to the other shoes I have which either don't have a lot of cushion by design or are way past the expiration date.

I can't quite believe I'm going to run a 50 mile race tomorrow!

The weather was great at the start, low 50's I think. After the 5 mile starter loop, I dropped off some layers.

I hadn't been watching my pace at all until after the first loop and noticed it was slower than I thought. I had a bit of a cough and I could feel it dragging on me a little bit. In fact I was seriously considering not doing this race, however I did not want to skip another race.  I was regretting that I had skipped the Georgia Death Race for a some other reason besides health related.  Was not feeling very well by the end of the first big loop. At mile 17 I had serious thoughts about quitting (I usually got those thoughts but not until much later!).

When I was in the mid 20's for mileage I thought to myself just make it to 30 miles then I'll just walk if I have to. Made it to 30 miles, and then eventually I was approaching the end of the second big loop.

I had a thoughts of just walking the rest. I also thought, just at least start the third loop and see how things feel. A few miles into the third and final big loop, there was a runner at an aid station who was doing the 50K. She was on her second loop and not long before was at the loop starting area on the verge of quitting. She had sat down for 45 minutes until someone convinced her to keep going. I walked with her for a bit as we left the aid station where she told me about this stuff. Eventually I was ready to run again. When you can't run anymore, walk for a bit, if that's all you can do then keep on walking. But, what's happened so far for me is that I'll see a nice flat section of trail or maybe a downhill section and decide it's time to start running again. So, that was the third loop. I finished about an hour slower than last year in 29th place (males) (was 6th place last year), but I did finish, my cough didn't get any worse, and as a bonus I got to spend more time on my feet for training.

I learned some valuable lessons today and it was a refresher course of going when you think you can't go on anymore, something I'll need for Western States.