On Saturday I ran the most I’ve ever run in one outing… 7 miles! Ok, so I didn’t actually run the ENTIRE thing, but the point is that I went out and I completed it! Details on that later, though…
Last Tuesday was the first day I had run in over a week since I hadn’t been feeling well the week prior, and then was in Vegas for 3 days. So I was nervous about how my body may feel. Luckily when I set out for my run, I was feeling pretty good. I maintained a 10-minute pace, which is great, but in my head I miscalculated my route and only ran 3.5 miles instead of 4.5! Whoopsies! I was already inside my house by the time I realized this. And, yes, I should have gone back out to run 1 more mile, but I didn’t.
Wednesday Suzanne and I ran 4.5 miles together. Overall it was a good run. It seems like FOREVER ago already! (I guess when you’re running 3-5 days a week, it all starts to blur.) We walked almost the first half mile. (We really need to stop getting caught up in conversation and focus on running instead!) I remember that I got really hot about 2 miles into the run and had to shed a layer, so we walked for about 30-60 seconds. Then around mile 3.5 I got a side stitch so we walked for another 1-2 minutes then pushed though and ran the rest of the way home.
Thursday was shopping night with Beth, so while I did not run, I was walking around the Chandler mall for a few hours!
Then Friday evening was Steve’s birthday party, so we didn’t run that day either…
Saturday morning I slept in until about 9:15am. When I got up I made myself a toasted PB&J then took my time getting out the door. I didn’t want to eat and then run right away because when I do that I usually start feeling like I’m going to vomit about 1 mile into my run. Also, I prefer to take my time getting out the door on weekend mornings because if I roll out of bed and run right away, I usually feel sluggish. If I sit around and relax a bit before running, I usually feel better because my body has time to wake up and my muscles can warm up a bit. So it was 11am by the time I got started. Normally at this time of year, running at 11am is a good idea because it’s not quite so cold. But it’s been abnormally warm here for the past couple of weeks, so with the warmer temperatures and the warm sun, it was actually quite warm on Saturday.
I had purposely mapped a slightly-longer-than-7-mile route for this run so that I could walk a little if needed but still run a full 7 miles. I mapped this run along the canal, heading west from 64th Street. My halfway point was 48th Street, but I walked from 48th to 44th Street, stretched for a minute, then walked back to 48th before running again. From 48th I ran to the water station at 56th Street, walked a little bit, and then ran most of the way to 64th Street. I felt myself slowing down with each step, and shortly after passing the water station, my left knee started bothering me, making it harder to run. I thought that once I got off of the canal and back onto the sidewalk that my knee would hurt even more, but to my surprise it didn’t hurt at all. BUT, at this point, I was so exhausted that I could barely get one foot in front of the other! And I had less than 1 mile to go! Bummer! For that last mile, I alternated between running and walking. I’d walk for a few minutes, think that I was good to run the rest of the way home, start running, and then find that the running was a huge struggle. So I walked more than I ran for the last mile…
… but I completed it! I covered about 7.5 miles that day! I have NEVER run that far at one time, so this is a HUGE accomplishment for me, and I’m still in disbelief that I did it!
What is scary is that we are less than 5 weeks from Race Day! Now I am concerned because if I get tired after only 6 miles, and have to face 13.1 in just over 1 month… I’m not sure how I’m going to make it! I know that Race Day will be completely different though! With ALL of the runners, the bands along the way, and everyone cheering us along… But it’s still intimidating!
I still feel like I should've been out more last week, but after having 2 good runs already this week, maybe it's good that I eased myself back into my program... Here's a snapshot of last week:
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