You know, I've been hearing that expression about "hitting the wall" for years now. I've never seen anything definitive about what hitting a wall feels like, but I know it's something I never wanted to do. I get why now.
Yesterday I was aiming to do 20-21 miles. It gets old to say it, but it was to be my longest run ever. And Friday night, as I was having dinner with Marisa, I realized things were going to be a little dicey. Dinner was a little less carby than usual... something neither of us quite realized until too late. I wasn't sure how it was going to play out, but I knew it would be interesting. And boy was it.
From the very outset of the run, I could just feel a little less energetic than usual. My first big hill made that apparent. But I was playing this thing out to see where it went, so who knows. I went up and over the Brooklyn Bridge again. (One day I am going to write a How To for tourists so they can walk around in a city without killing themselves or other people. But that day is not today.) So up and over the bridge, around City Hall and back over to Brooklyn. I was running a little slower than usual but things were still on track. I don't really stress about the time anymore... more about how things feel and it was feeling like it was the right pace for now. So all good.
Mile 15 came and I could tell something was really wrong. It felt like I needed to be at the end of the run... I wasn't sure where I was going to find another 5 miles, but I knew I would need to. By Mile 16, I was faced with a big decision. 1 mile away from me was home. I could go that way and end on 17 again. Or, I could turn into the park for the 3 mile loop and do that and then take the mile home and wind up perfectly at 20. It was an agonizing decision as I could feel my body starting to walk. But I turned into the park anyway. I was going to finish thing damn thing. What came next left me utterly sure I knew what hitting the wall was actually like. For all the legend it has in my head that always seemed to lack concrete description, I can sum it up this way.
I know what its like to run with leg cramps. It's a horrible feeling. I had passed leg cramps and clearly any remaining energy and fuel in my muscles was gone. Pressing on, even at a walk, meant these muscles still needed to find something. And in spite of eating calories as I was going, it was just too little too late. If reaching the wall is that moment of muscle cramping, hitting the wall is taking those muscles and physically twisting them to get any last ounces of energy out. It is nothing short of horrifically painful. The muscles in my calves locked up and literally took me off my feet and to the ground. I got back up. My quad muscles were not far behind. I have never had cramping up into my quads and hips before on a run. My shoulders started to feel like I had gotten some TB boosters a few hours earlier. My lower back ached. I tried to run and to be honest, my calves hurt less running, but it didn't last long at all and I was walking in even more pain than before. I can't even put words to how painful that moment is. I wanted to lie down on the side of the road and just sleep. Again, my brain started telling my body to run... honestly, it hurt less to run, but somewhere between really thinking and firing neurons to run and actually running, the message was getting lost. It's a strange feeling when your brain is expecting a run and the rest of you isn't doing it. It's very confusing to say the least. I had 3 miles still to go.
I took a shortcut, which left me shy of a mile, but I knew even walking I wasn't going to make it much more. I had thrown down the last of my shot-blocks just as I turned into the park, so with the one last mile to home, the energy must have made its way to where I needed it because the cramps let up a little and I could walk without shaking or starting to feel like I was about to fall. I made it home with 19 miles and some feet additional. I poured myself into the apartment too weak to get my shoes off. Thank god Marisa was home.
In a lot of ways, I am glad to have had the experience, though it is one I will never hope to repeat. Most people experience the wall during a race. I have the luxury of experiencing it on a training run. I've never been in a position of running far enough to literally squeeze every ounce of energy out of myself before. I've never been in a position where what I ate the night before a training run ever really mattered that critically. I am glad to know that now.
I came in, Marisa helped me to get undressed (I literally could not get my jersey up over my head) and stood in shower to warm up while Marisa made me a bagel with peanut butter and some very concentrated gatorade. I needed the burst of sugar and energy. The difference was huge when that kicked in. It was unbelievable.
I remember several years ago seeing the footage of Julie Moss at the 1982 Ironman in Hawaii. This was the first year that it was being broadcast on ABC TV and one could argue this moment really made triathlon what it is today. At the very end of the marathon, Julie Moss was in the lead. With simply yards to go, her body hit that wall and shut down and as she was passed by her closest female competitor, Julie Moss crawled on her hands and knees to the finish, with TV cameras rolling. While my experience with the wall yesterday is the teeniest portion of that, I feel like I can see in that footage some of what I was feeling yesterday. I can see her brain telling her body to run and nothing happening. I can see that confusion. I don't think I have ever understood what compelled her to try to keep running until yesterday when I realized its more painful not to.
I am lucky. I learned that lesson 3 weeks before my first marathon... not in the throes of it. I call that a blessing.
More later.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
17.61
Holy crap. I ran 17.61 miles. Last week I ran the furthest distance I had ever run and this week I topped it by 3 miles. Wow.
17.61 miles is really really long. Oh my god, I was running for 3 and a half hours straight. I had with me the new "fuel belt" which isn't actually a fuel belt, but the Nathan Speed Belt 4, which has much larger water bottles and overall just feels better designed. My 14.4 mile run I maxed out the water I could carry in my other fuel belt, since the bottles only hold 6 oz each. These bad boys hold 10 oz, so that way I can make sure I don't run out of water on these really long runs. I also tried out the Hammer Nutrition Endurolyte tablets to see if adding some salt and electrolytes helped with the muscle cramping in my calves. I think it helped, but the jury is still somewhat out. I did notice that it made me feel even more thirsty though. I am learning there is a science to fueling that I still need to perfect, but I am hoping I get a little closer each time.
So the course I ran gave me, get this, 10 solid hills. Yep. I have been training across as many hills as I can just to get used to it. Last week I upped my total number of hills from 7 to 8 and this week, with the addition of running up and over the Brooklyn Bridge and into Manhattan and then coming back, I get 2 more hills, given I have to go from sea level to up that high and back down again. So a total of 10 hills now. So far so good.
So today I am feeling pretty good. I was feeling good enough last night to get my groove on a little at a party-- no small feat post 17 miles. Today I am a little muscle tired, for certain, but doing far better than I might have expected. Next week the goal is 20 miles and the weekend after has a 23 mile goal and then that is it, folks. I am now under one month. My training has had so many ups and downs that I am definitely feeling like I am heading into this a little less trained than I would prefer and with a shorter taper (just one week) than I would prefer, but I am just so thrilled to be where I am right now given I thought my running days may have come to a close with that injury.
It's funny, I was talking with Marisa, and eventually with some of the people at the party, about something I discovered on the run yesterday. It really isn't until something like miles 5-6 that I really start to feel like I am working. All these miles all the time makes the first handful of miles feel like background. It really was such a strange little epiphany to have. I had already made my way down through a few neighborhoods in Brooklyn, up the steep hill to the top of Ft. Greene Park, down to the Brooklyn Bridge, up and over it and into Manhattan around City Hall Park before I started to really feel the run settle in and make itself felt. It kind of caught me off guard how routine some 5-6 miles is that I don't really sweat it much anymore. Never thought I would be back at that point, if I ever was at all.
Anyway, I am off once again to Hartford, so its back to the Internet dead zone. But more training this week, rest assured. And with any luck I will continue staving off the tiniest bit of cold I seem to be keeping at bay. So more next week.
17.61 miles is really really long. Oh my god, I was running for 3 and a half hours straight. I had with me the new "fuel belt" which isn't actually a fuel belt, but the Nathan Speed Belt 4, which has much larger water bottles and overall just feels better designed. My 14.4 mile run I maxed out the water I could carry in my other fuel belt, since the bottles only hold 6 oz each. These bad boys hold 10 oz, so that way I can make sure I don't run out of water on these really long runs. I also tried out the Hammer Nutrition Endurolyte tablets to see if adding some salt and electrolytes helped with the muscle cramping in my calves. I think it helped, but the jury is still somewhat out. I did notice that it made me feel even more thirsty though. I am learning there is a science to fueling that I still need to perfect, but I am hoping I get a little closer each time.
So the course I ran gave me, get this, 10 solid hills. Yep. I have been training across as many hills as I can just to get used to it. Last week I upped my total number of hills from 7 to 8 and this week, with the addition of running up and over the Brooklyn Bridge and into Manhattan and then coming back, I get 2 more hills, given I have to go from sea level to up that high and back down again. So a total of 10 hills now. So far so good.
So today I am feeling pretty good. I was feeling good enough last night to get my groove on a little at a party-- no small feat post 17 miles. Today I am a little muscle tired, for certain, but doing far better than I might have expected. Next week the goal is 20 miles and the weekend after has a 23 mile goal and then that is it, folks. I am now under one month. My training has had so many ups and downs that I am definitely feeling like I am heading into this a little less trained than I would prefer and with a shorter taper (just one week) than I would prefer, but I am just so thrilled to be where I am right now given I thought my running days may have come to a close with that injury.
It's funny, I was talking with Marisa, and eventually with some of the people at the party, about something I discovered on the run yesterday. It really isn't until something like miles 5-6 that I really start to feel like I am working. All these miles all the time makes the first handful of miles feel like background. It really was such a strange little epiphany to have. I had already made my way down through a few neighborhoods in Brooklyn, up the steep hill to the top of Ft. Greene Park, down to the Brooklyn Bridge, up and over it and into Manhattan around City Hall Park before I started to really feel the run settle in and make itself felt. It kind of caught me off guard how routine some 5-6 miles is that I don't really sweat it much anymore. Never thought I would be back at that point, if I ever was at all.
Anyway, I am off once again to Hartford, so its back to the Internet dead zone. But more training this week, rest assured. And with any luck I will continue staving off the tiniest bit of cold I seem to be keeping at bay. So more next week.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
It's Bittersweet
I did another long run yesterday. Surprise, surprise. It's strange to look over my log for the past 3 weeks and realize I've done at least a half marathon a week.
On the one hand, I am really excited about it. I remember coming home one day several months ago almost in tears telling Marisa I didn't think I would ever be able to run again. It just wasn't working. And now I do a half marathon every weekend. But the kicker is that I am down to just over a month and I am not at the distance I need to be and my window to get there is closing.
Yesterday I ran 14.4 miles. It was my farthest run in my entire life. And yes, I ran it all save for 2 quick walk breaks up the last of what wound up being 8 hills. My course is hilly by design to get me used to the hills of Boston, but this last one (Nellie, if you are a long time reader) and I have a long history and she always seems to thwart me a little more than I like. So 14.4 miles. At mile 7, my right knee hurt. Sharp pain right where I often get it. And my brain thought I would be quitting early again but I decided to just not think about it and try and shorten my stride a little and take my time and eventually it worked itself out. Thank god.
I hit Prospect Park at mile 12-ish and felt like I could keep this up for a while yet... it was becoming, if I didn't think about it, just background. It's a strange thing when that happens... I had been running so long (about 2 hrs) that my legs were just used to it... if I stopped thinking "OMG... I AM STILL RUNNING?!?!" then it would just keep going. Except at mile 13ish, my calves started to cramp and the remainder was a little bit of a battle to keep going all the way home. No more adding on additional miles, I just needed to get home. So I did.
I've had a lot of setbacks in this journey. Truth is, I have managed to overcome them all, but the whittling down of time isn't one I can fix. It dawned on me what I think the muscle cramps in my calves were all about. Salt. I am not sure where I originally came up with the idea, but as I was walking in the door, I just knew what it was. It was salt. I must have read it somewhere or heard it on a running podcast (ahem: Phedippidations) or something, but I knew. I came in the door, popped a little salt into me and stretched. So for the next long run, in addition to bringing my water and bringing my shot-bloks, now I need to take some salt tabs with me. In addition, now I need to get a bigger fuel belt because I finished all the water I brought with me. So I think with that little change for next week, I should be able to get up to around 17 miles. (fingers crossed) I was telling Marisa last night that I kind of feel like I need to do another marathon just to prove to myself that with enough time, I could actually do it really well. But the reality is, with time ticking down, its going to be less than I really want it to be. And maybe that's the point of a first marathon.
I have until May to decide if I want to take the entry I earned for the NYC Marathon 2007 and reapply it for 2008. When the notice came in about the deadline to do that, it was a few weeks ago and I was in the midst of struggling with the 5-6 mile distance. I remember my response being somewhat along the "hell no" lines, but leaving it to decide after Boston. I remember thinking with the NYC Triathlon when I signed up for it and was exhausted from all the training, that this was going to be a one shot deal. And it wasn't. Because I wound up loving it and was barely across the finish line before I was ready to sign up for the next one. So there is a part of me that expects to feel the same way. And maybe with Marathon #2, I can feel like I have worked it all out. But I am getting very far ahead of myself. I have to get through the next month and a few days and see where it goes from there.
So that's where things stand now. Longest run to date down, but not quite enough to feel like I am where I need to be. A few more lessons learned along the way that will help me in long races in the future (like when I finally do my half ironman). And there it is. So have a good week, all. I wish I could post more on the road. I haven't figured out the internet access stuff yet. The craptacular hotel and the client blocking a lot of web traffic makes for a bit of a dead zone. But c'est la vie. More next weekend.
On the one hand, I am really excited about it. I remember coming home one day several months ago almost in tears telling Marisa I didn't think I would ever be able to run again. It just wasn't working. And now I do a half marathon every weekend. But the kicker is that I am down to just over a month and I am not at the distance I need to be and my window to get there is closing.
Yesterday I ran 14.4 miles. It was my farthest run in my entire life. And yes, I ran it all save for 2 quick walk breaks up the last of what wound up being 8 hills. My course is hilly by design to get me used to the hills of Boston, but this last one (Nellie, if you are a long time reader) and I have a long history and she always seems to thwart me a little more than I like. So 14.4 miles. At mile 7, my right knee hurt. Sharp pain right where I often get it. And my brain thought I would be quitting early again but I decided to just not think about it and try and shorten my stride a little and take my time and eventually it worked itself out. Thank god.
I hit Prospect Park at mile 12-ish and felt like I could keep this up for a while yet... it was becoming, if I didn't think about it, just background. It's a strange thing when that happens... I had been running so long (about 2 hrs) that my legs were just used to it... if I stopped thinking "OMG... I AM STILL RUNNING?!?!" then it would just keep going. Except at mile 13ish, my calves started to cramp and the remainder was a little bit of a battle to keep going all the way home. No more adding on additional miles, I just needed to get home. So I did.
I've had a lot of setbacks in this journey. Truth is, I have managed to overcome them all, but the whittling down of time isn't one I can fix. It dawned on me what I think the muscle cramps in my calves were all about. Salt. I am not sure where I originally came up with the idea, but as I was walking in the door, I just knew what it was. It was salt. I must have read it somewhere or heard it on a running podcast (ahem: Phedippidations) or something, but I knew. I came in the door, popped a little salt into me and stretched. So for the next long run, in addition to bringing my water and bringing my shot-bloks, now I need to take some salt tabs with me. In addition, now I need to get a bigger fuel belt because I finished all the water I brought with me. So I think with that little change for next week, I should be able to get up to around 17 miles. (fingers crossed) I was telling Marisa last night that I kind of feel like I need to do another marathon just to prove to myself that with enough time, I could actually do it really well. But the reality is, with time ticking down, its going to be less than I really want it to be. And maybe that's the point of a first marathon.
I have until May to decide if I want to take the entry I earned for the NYC Marathon 2007 and reapply it for 2008. When the notice came in about the deadline to do that, it was a few weeks ago and I was in the midst of struggling with the 5-6 mile distance. I remember my response being somewhat along the "hell no" lines, but leaving it to decide after Boston. I remember thinking with the NYC Triathlon when I signed up for it and was exhausted from all the training, that this was going to be a one shot deal. And it wasn't. Because I wound up loving it and was barely across the finish line before I was ready to sign up for the next one. So there is a part of me that expects to feel the same way. And maybe with Marathon #2, I can feel like I have worked it all out. But I am getting very far ahead of myself. I have to get through the next month and a few days and see where it goes from there.
So that's where things stand now. Longest run to date down, but not quite enough to feel like I am where I need to be. A few more lessons learned along the way that will help me in long races in the future (like when I finally do my half ironman). And there it is. So have a good week, all. I wish I could post more on the road. I haven't figured out the internet access stuff yet. The craptacular hotel and the client blocking a lot of web traffic makes for a bit of a dead zone. But c'est la vie. More next weekend.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Holy Hartford, Batman
I wish I could explain to you all how crazy the last 2 weeks has been for me. I can sum it up by saying that my first 2 weeks in Hartford have not involved bed for more than 3 hour spans. And I am tired.
This last week in particular was brutal. And through it all, I have not had time to do my physical therapy. After my rocking run last weekend, this weekend was a very different story. The exhaustion, the stress, the lack of time, is starting to take a toll on me and I am not sure how I will be able to reign it in this week to come.
Today I ran only 11.5 miles out of what was to be 17. About mile 9.5 my knee started to hurt. I gut out running until Mile 10 and then walked a mile and a half home. I'm deciding not to get too upset about it because if I am going to break, heck, at least I am breaking at mile 9.5 instead of mile 4 now. And the truth is that despite knowing that my PT has been dropped for 2 weeks (including foam rolling, which is even worse), my initial pace, which felt remarkably comfortable, was down at 8:45/mile. I can't help but think things really have turned a corner, but with an incredible amount of diligence. And that is something I cannot afford to let slide. My career is very important to me, but long term to permanant damage to myself needs to be the first priority.
I am not sure I have much else to report. I can tell that time is ticking away but I am starting to find comfort in it and get over the terror of knowing I am going to run a marathon. It's Boston, afterall. It's the dream I had many many many years ago when I stood in Natick with my parents at one of the worst moments in my life, smoking my brains out and knowing something had to change. I think that was 1997... so to have kicked that idea off some 11 years ago now and have it still never quite wash out the way some grand ideas tend to... yeah, I am ready. It will be such a stark contrast to that April day those 11 years ago. I am excited that my parents will be making the trip back to celebrate it with me.
On that note, I am keeping it short and sweet. I need to have some dinner, get on that freaking foam roller and then settle down to sleep... this might me my best nights sleep for a few days and I need to start banking some Zs.
More next weekend, I promise.
This last week in particular was brutal. And through it all, I have not had time to do my physical therapy. After my rocking run last weekend, this weekend was a very different story. The exhaustion, the stress, the lack of time, is starting to take a toll on me and I am not sure how I will be able to reign it in this week to come.
Today I ran only 11.5 miles out of what was to be 17. About mile 9.5 my knee started to hurt. I gut out running until Mile 10 and then walked a mile and a half home. I'm deciding not to get too upset about it because if I am going to break, heck, at least I am breaking at mile 9.5 instead of mile 4 now. And the truth is that despite knowing that my PT has been dropped for 2 weeks (including foam rolling, which is even worse), my initial pace, which felt remarkably comfortable, was down at 8:45/mile. I can't help but think things really have turned a corner, but with an incredible amount of diligence. And that is something I cannot afford to let slide. My career is very important to me, but long term to permanant damage to myself needs to be the first priority.
I am not sure I have much else to report. I can tell that time is ticking away but I am starting to find comfort in it and get over the terror of knowing I am going to run a marathon. It's Boston, afterall. It's the dream I had many many many years ago when I stood in Natick with my parents at one of the worst moments in my life, smoking my brains out and knowing something had to change. I think that was 1997... so to have kicked that idea off some 11 years ago now and have it still never quite wash out the way some grand ideas tend to... yeah, I am ready. It will be such a stark contrast to that April day those 11 years ago. I am excited that my parents will be making the trip back to celebrate it with me.
On that note, I am keeping it short and sweet. I need to have some dinner, get on that freaking foam roller and then settle down to sleep... this might me my best nights sleep for a few days and I need to start banking some Zs.
More next weekend, I promise.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
What's Going On.
So it's been a few weeks since my last post. I know, it's bad. I am having trouble balancing all the training and work and everything else, and quite frankly, the last few weeks have been so very up and down that I didn't quite know where to begin.
So let me see if I can catch everyone up.
The last few weeks of my training as I was posting was starting, unfortunately, to fall apart. It seemed no matter what I did, my right knee was hurting with shorter and shorter runs. I would be out on my intended 16 miler only to find around mile 5 as I would be putting my jacket on and have to slow to a walk for a minute while I readjusted that I couldn't quite walk. The pain was quite bad and on one occassion, I had to take the subway home in defeat. I'd wind up getting home frozen because I had to walk more than run in the dead of winter and just kinda get very depressed about it all as I warmed up in the shower. I knew I wasn't going to quit, but I also knew I was not in a good place and it brought back all the fears after finishing PT that I may never truly run again.
Two weeks ago, I was out on my long run and around mile 7 of what I was aiming to be around 10, the pain was back and I knew I had to walk home again. But this time, I reached down and took off the cho-pat strap on my right knee because it was scratching me up a little and I went from almost unable to walk to almost fine. And at that point, a lightbulb went off. Maybe the pain wasnt my knee so much as the strap causing the pain. I went home with a mix of emotions-- pissed at the idea that I may have been fine all along but making things bad with the damn strap, yet hopeful that I had something to try to break this mess and then also really scared that if this didn't work, my running career may be over. I got home, warmed up again, stretched and iced my knee and thought about trying my run on Tuesday without any knee brace to see how it went.
And it rocked. I averaged at 10:07/mile pace, which while slower than I used to be, was the 2nd fastest since coming back from injury, and that was a 10:04 fastest, so it was close. I felt fine at the end of the 4.6 miles, which was new as well. I had someplace to go with all of this. Last weekend, I did a 10 mile long run. It's well behind the distance I need to be at, but I am fighting just to be in this right now, and finally I started to feel like I might be. 10 miles, 11:14 pace. Again, its slow, but there was no pain. In fact, what held me back was being tired and my lungs and calves not feeling ready for the work... it had been a while since I had run 10 miles. My knees felt good.
This week was my first week on the road in... (wait for it...) Hartford. Yep. Not Memphis. At the 11th hour before heading to Memphis, there was a change in plan and I picked up work in Hartford instead. So this last week has been a very sleep deprived week as the project I picked up was up for some big milestones this week and I needed to jump right in. But in the meantime, I hit the treadmill pushing myself a little harder on the pace and hills and just tried to get the wind in my sails. I needed this to truly feel like I turned a corner and might actually be able to make this dream come to fruition.
I did my long run on Saturday. Now that I am travelling again, I need Sunday to recover and not just be travelling and working at the client, so Saturdays were a better fit. I set out to do somewhere around 13-15 depending on how it felt and ramp up from there. I wound up doing 13 almost perfectly. My pace was a 10:37 average across all that distance, which is unheard of for me now. And at one point during mile 5, I looked down at my garmin and caught sight of something I never thought I would see again. I was running an 8:45/mile pace. I had wind in my sails.
The best part about my run on Saturday was that I couldn't go any further because of my calves and my lungs. Not my knees. My knees didn't feel like there were any problems at all. Even today I feel awesome. I went to Marisa's yoga class where I didn't have the quad strength after running a half marathon yesterday... but my knees were great. So imagine my excitement when I opened the mail and saw this. Now I am still very behind where I need to be, don't get me wrong. So I have a long way to go in just over a month. But for the first time, I think I have a fighting chance at this. Thank god.
This week will be more treadmill runs and seeing what I can do to play with pace and hills so I can get back on track for the course in Boston. But mostly, I think this week is going to be spent celebrating feeling like for the first time since that fateful triathlon back in September 2006, that I might finally have found the way back.
More to come. Internet access is spotty at best in Hartford, so if it takes me until the weekend, fear not. I will be back. Happy March!
So let me see if I can catch everyone up.
The last few weeks of my training as I was posting was starting, unfortunately, to fall apart. It seemed no matter what I did, my right knee was hurting with shorter and shorter runs. I would be out on my intended 16 miler only to find around mile 5 as I would be putting my jacket on and have to slow to a walk for a minute while I readjusted that I couldn't quite walk. The pain was quite bad and on one occassion, I had to take the subway home in defeat. I'd wind up getting home frozen because I had to walk more than run in the dead of winter and just kinda get very depressed about it all as I warmed up in the shower. I knew I wasn't going to quit, but I also knew I was not in a good place and it brought back all the fears after finishing PT that I may never truly run again.
Two weeks ago, I was out on my long run and around mile 7 of what I was aiming to be around 10, the pain was back and I knew I had to walk home again. But this time, I reached down and took off the cho-pat strap on my right knee because it was scratching me up a little and I went from almost unable to walk to almost fine. And at that point, a lightbulb went off. Maybe the pain wasnt my knee so much as the strap causing the pain. I went home with a mix of emotions-- pissed at the idea that I may have been fine all along but making things bad with the damn strap, yet hopeful that I had something to try to break this mess and then also really scared that if this didn't work, my running career may be over. I got home, warmed up again, stretched and iced my knee and thought about trying my run on Tuesday without any knee brace to see how it went.
And it rocked. I averaged at 10:07/mile pace, which while slower than I used to be, was the 2nd fastest since coming back from injury, and that was a 10:04 fastest, so it was close. I felt fine at the end of the 4.6 miles, which was new as well. I had someplace to go with all of this. Last weekend, I did a 10 mile long run. It's well behind the distance I need to be at, but I am fighting just to be in this right now, and finally I started to feel like I might be. 10 miles, 11:14 pace. Again, its slow, but there was no pain. In fact, what held me back was being tired and my lungs and calves not feeling ready for the work... it had been a while since I had run 10 miles. My knees felt good.
This week was my first week on the road in... (wait for it...) Hartford. Yep. Not Memphis. At the 11th hour before heading to Memphis, there was a change in plan and I picked up work in Hartford instead. So this last week has been a very sleep deprived week as the project I picked up was up for some big milestones this week and I needed to jump right in. But in the meantime, I hit the treadmill pushing myself a little harder on the pace and hills and just tried to get the wind in my sails. I needed this to truly feel like I turned a corner and might actually be able to make this dream come to fruition.
I did my long run on Saturday. Now that I am travelling again, I need Sunday to recover and not just be travelling and working at the client, so Saturdays were a better fit. I set out to do somewhere around 13-15 depending on how it felt and ramp up from there. I wound up doing 13 almost perfectly. My pace was a 10:37 average across all that distance, which is unheard of for me now. And at one point during mile 5, I looked down at my garmin and caught sight of something I never thought I would see again. I was running an 8:45/mile pace. I had wind in my sails.
The best part about my run on Saturday was that I couldn't go any further because of my calves and my lungs. Not my knees. My knees didn't feel like there were any problems at all. Even today I feel awesome. I went to Marisa's yoga class where I didn't have the quad strength after running a half marathon yesterday... but my knees were great. So imagine my excitement when I opened the mail and saw this. Now I am still very behind where I need to be, don't get me wrong. So I have a long way to go in just over a month. But for the first time, I think I have a fighting chance at this. Thank god.
This week will be more treadmill runs and seeing what I can do to play with pace and hills so I can get back on track for the course in Boston. But mostly, I think this week is going to be spent celebrating feeling like for the first time since that fateful triathlon back in September 2006, that I might finally have found the way back.
More to come. Internet access is spotty at best in Hartford, so if it takes me until the weekend, fear not. I will be back. Happy March!
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