ready to crush 18 miles… or drop a deuce.
Hello, 18 miles, I would like to make you my bitch.
In training for my first marathon, I’m following a pretty aggressive training program, which involved a 18 mile run this morning, then our first 20 mile (note there are 3 of them) next Saturday. We are actually supposed to run 22-24 miles, but that happens to be the weekend I am running Tuna200, which includes 21-point-something miles, so I think I am set.
Anyway! This morning was my first time running 18 miles. Because I knew I’d been adding more runs during the week, giving my body less recovery, and am now running 30+ miles per week, a friend and I decided to do American Tobacco Trail [ATT] (see below… the entire 20-30 miles of the trail looks like this). It can be boring, but because it is predictable it is a great place to “mile-up” (I picture an old school nintendo “level up” sort of noise and congratulations screen, before going to save the princess of course. That damned princess, why is she always hanging out in dungeons. Bitch needs to learn a lesson… Next time, leave her ass there. That’ll teach her …. but I digress).
I have a few pre-long-run rituals, which start about an hour before the run I leave my house (some of our running routes are like 45 minutes away). So today we were meeting on my side of town- another thing I like about ATT. So I got to “sleep in”- waking up around 6am. I won’t go into details, but I always wake up, get my coffee, climb back into bed and check email/facebook/groupon/anything that could have been updated overnight. Then, if I’m lucky, I eat. I get the “morning sickness” in which I cannot hold down food if I wake up before 530am. I was hoping the toast with PB would stay down… SUCCESS! Then, there’s the bathroom (you don’t want to suddenly have to “go” at 10 miles in). Success there as well! And if I’m lucky I remember all the things I need- iphone, GUs/sports beans/ Nuun/ gatorade, two extra nalgenes, camelbak, flip flops (post-run), towel (post-run), fruit (post-run), headphones (in case I run hans solo style), fruit in case I get hungry, …I think that’s everything, but you get the picture.
I despise running on gravel, so this was a nice change of pace for me- at 12 miles
So at 630, I text Champagne (she missed one of our first group runs back in Feb because she drank 5 bottles of champagne… with help, of course. We soon learned to expect this, so I text her to wake up her). She’s running late, which is perfect because then I can get all my stuff together and be ready to go. I met up with her at 715, and we get started. The plan is to do a “double-out-and-back”… so 4.5 miles in one direction and back, then 4.5 miles in the other direction and back. I also know she’s had some shin splint issues, and may do less (hence headphones).
About 2 miles in, Champagne needs to walk. (Also she mentioned she was slightly hungover, so hey, she showed up right? haha). So after another mile of run/walking, I decide to dust her, and ended up overshooting my turn-around and going out 4.75 miles, but I felt great, so no problem there. I walk with her for a bit after I turn around, but I feel antsy to run, so I pick it up until the parking lot. I stop to get some water/ Nuun/ GU and stretch a little. Champagne finally comes over. She tells me she’s done. I nudge her to go another mile or two. She and I head back out the other direction, where I know I will lose her, and she will probably turn back early. (Which ended up happening, and I didn’t expect her to wait for me. I had decided I was going to try and go 20 today, if I could). I ended up going out a total or 5 miles, to make my entire run a 19.5 miler.
Wooooooo! (I’m a woo girl.)
So I go to my dad’s for brunch. Which kinda kills me. Because all I wanted to do was go home, crawl into bed and nap a little. Instead, I got to go to his house, shower, put on compression socks, and make small talk about my brother getting married (and pregnant, and yes, in that order, though- really? Isn’t it still a little shot-gun if you’re pregnant before you’re married? Even if the baby comes like 3 months later? Oh well, I’ll love the kid. I’m just sayin..) Also, I love my dad, but him presuming I only wanted a two-egg cheese omelette makes me think he doesn’t understand me. I was like “what else do you have to put on it? Peppers? Ummm…I can make it” as I am slowly adding more eggs to the mix. I downed my gatorade while with him, and his wife asked “do you want coffee?” at 1pm. I was like THANK YOU JESUS! YES!
And a day later, I feel fine. I’m a little tired, but my body isn’t too sore. I don’t need Biofreeze or to sleep all day. I feel strong. I am definitely ready for Tuna (but I’ll save talking about Tuna for another post because that could take a while…) I am very excited for Tuna. I’m little nervous for Richmond, but 19 miles down, 11 weeks to go and only 7 miles left to add on.
Chans on a run 