20 miles

I feel like I should be in better shape at this point. Oh well. I’ve got just less than 2 more months to get there. I went 20 miles on Monday, but it was really more of a glorified 20 mile walk than a 20 mile run. The total elevation gain was supposed to be only about half of what it was on my 18 mile run so I thought it would be a great run, but it was not. It took me (including traffic lights) a little over 4 and a half hours. I can’t know the exact time because my ipod died towards the end. I don’t know if it’s because I only ate half a banana and left 20 minutes later, if it was because I took more water than I have before and that weighed me down, if it was because it was too soon after my 12 mile run I did on Thursday, or if it was because I’m just a pansy of a runner, but the whole thing was hard and after my first 5 miles I remember walking more than I remember jogging. Usually I start out a run feeling super tired and not wanting to run, but I get out of my funk after a few minutes and think it’s not so bad, and then don’t feel really awful for at least the first little while, but Monday I never got out of the funk as I expected to. I don’t know what to blame, but it was probably a combo of all the reasons listed above. One of my biggest fears is that I’m turning mole hills into mountains and that the hills I think are “so hard” are really only so-so that any runner could easily traverse and I’m still going to die on a flat or minimally hilly route.

If anybody is familiar with Antioch, my run on Monday went from the Eagleridge neighborhood out Deer Valley road all the way until it dead ends at Marsh Creek Rd, then I turned back around. I was ready to be done when I hit Balfour…only 5 miles or so into my run...and ready to die a couple miles after that. I was so tired I had to walk not only inclines, but some flat and even some decending parts of the run. I got nauseated at one point and just plain tired of being upright. I tried to figure out if it was my legs that were tired or my lungs and I couldn’t figure it out except I was just TIRED. I should have had a better breakfast, but I woke up too late and it was already late in the morning and I didn’t have time to wait the 2 hours eating a decent breakfast before a run like that would have taken. Guess I learned my lesson. I finished never wanting to run again. The best part of the run (aside from finishing) was on the run back, passing a big group of cows near Kaiser hospital that all started running when they saw me coming. It made me feel powerful and was kind of exciting to have them all running next to me…even if there was a barbed wire fence between us.

Tuesday I did my 3 mile easy run on a mostly flat route and was surprised I completed it with a 10:40 min/mile average considering how tired and sore I was from the 20 miles the day before. That’s faster than I’ve ever completed 3 miles. I’m going to attribute it to no major hills.