Success and Struggle

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Last weekend I had a successful half marathon and got back under 2 hours. I hadn’t seen that in a half at all last year. I ran the Earth Day Half Marathon in 1:56:00. It felt good and I wasn’t dying at the end. Of course I had that thought of maybe being able to have done it faster, but was happy to finish feeling good. Today was a bit of a different story. RF is still recovering from pneumonia, so we couldn’t do our 18 miler together. I did ended up running with two other friends though. I tackled the hilly portion of the marathon route first with one friend and then finished off the last 9 miles with another friend. I made it through, but think I came as close to experiencing bonking as I ever have. I’ve heard people talk about bonking during a marathon, but was never quite sure what the experience would be. The last few miles today were a struggle and I started to feel incredibly light headed. With only a mile left, I had to stop for some energy chews and a rest or I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have put a foot in front of the other for much longer. This was a run where I wonder how I’m going to finish 26.2 miles. I do think though, in my training for the other two marathons, the 18-miler was the hardest run.

Running Well

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I missed giving an update on last weekend’s long run and it went too well not to share. RF and I did a 16 mile run that incorporated the big hills in the marathon and it felt good. Except for the last two miles, I found myself smiling quite often. We had a good pace and RF, who is faster than I am, claimed I set the pace. While the run went well, I did feel a bit of a twinge in my upper glute once in a while during the run. The day after our run it did start to hinder some of my movements. I had sudden sharp pains in my upper glute on certain movements so I waited until Tuesday to run again. Gradually it has gotten better and I think it could be gone. I’ll find out tomorrow at the Earth Day Half Marathon. Unfortunately, it looks like RF has pneumonia so I’ll be running alone. Her pneumonia probably explains why I was setting the pace last weekend.

Running Home

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I’ve been trying to be diligent about doing intervals during my marathon training this time and according to the program I’ve (a little loosely) been following, this week I was to do a 10-20 minute warm up, a 1 mile interval with a 400 meter rest interval, a 2 mile interval with an 800 rest interval, followed by two 800s split up by a 400 meter rest interval, and finally followed with a cool down. Even though it seemed a little beyond me and I wasn’t feeling too spunky, I decided to tackle it before work this morning. After my warm up and the first mile interval, I wasn’t so sure I could do another two miles at that pace. I broke up the two miles into mile intervals again and while my pace had been pretty good I wasn’t quite feeling it so started to entertain skipping the 800s and running home at a normal pace. At about the same time, however, I realized I should have turned around in my out and back course much sooner to do this and still get home and cleaned up for work. Suddenly I was motivated to do my last two 800s and even a cool down at a quick pace. My pace definitely improved and I squeaked into work at a decent time. I guess I need to get too far from home to get me to speed up.

Deer Sighting

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Saturday RF and I had a down week so we only ran 12. It was surprisingly hard, and it wasn’t my foot. I just felt tired. Part of our run was in Fort Snelling and despite us both feeling a bit worn out, we somehow still decided to run up a large hill we originally hadn’t intended to be a part of our route. It turned out to be worth it. On our way back down the hill, we saw nine deer. Two were within 20 feet of us. Snelling Lake was flooding so they must have been pushed closer to the road. I think they were just as curious as to what we were doing there as we were curious of how close they were. The deer were not only a stunning site, but a good distraction as we pushed through the next few miles. Overall, the run was actually fine and my foot didn’t seem any worse. I seem to have to be careful of uneven ground and have also made a resolution to buy some good supportive sandals for the summer. Time to let a little fashion go I think.