Horrible Long Run! UGH!

Here in New England it is COLD. And we are all complaining.

Nothing new really. It's either too hot, too cold, too buggy, too many tourists. You get the idea!

Today's high temp! Lovely...

Let's backtrack to last week.

I swear, every one of my workouts was amazing. I felt like I was kicking ass and taking names! And luckily, most of the days were beautiful, lovely, even kind of warm days.

And then... There was my long run day. I anticipated doing 20, planned all day for it, only flinched a little when the high temp was 11 with 25 MPH wind, and went for it.

Worst attempt at a long run EVER. This answers the age old question of what is worse: long runs when it is 95 or long runs when it is 11? I hate running when it is 95- I CAN NOT run when it is 11.

When, at mile 12.5 I discovered that my handheld had frozen solid (as well as my hands- in gloves with hand warmers) I gave up and called for help. Pitiful...

OMG. I am the luckiest girl alive!!!!

I snuck in another mile and a half before I met him on the road (I had ducked into a warm little store to text- and seriously considered staying in there. possibly drinking beers.) I was so cold and exhausted that it was absurd. I felt like I had run a full marathon (my winter clothing and extra gear, as light as it is, weighs in at 5.2 pounds. Tiring to lug around, I tell ya.) I was supposd to foam roll and whatnot but I was whipped and exhausted (and a little grumpy) so I sat on the couch with 3 labradors, one attractive Ironman, 6 blankets, a wedge of Brie, a bottle of whiskey and a big bar of chocolate. And eventually some veggies, as seen below. Then I felt better.

My sister came over and we ate a healthy dinner.

I don't get upset about one shit long run- hell, before Around The Lake I'd say that 80% of my long runs were horrendous.

I suppose the silver lining is that my other workouts last week were rock solid. My "recovery" run the next day had me clocking an 8:02 average and I barely broke a sweat (but it was in the mid 30's and I lost the 5 pounds of extraneous crap...) I ran 8 the following day, over hills, super easy and it was still at an 8:20 pace. So if nothing else, I'm getting back to the point of having 8:20's feel easy instead of barely being able to keep it under 9's (ugh!)

Regarding pickles and cinnamon toast.

I am now in my third cycle of Marathon Training. WHY??? WHY???!!

Oh right. Because I am badass. Duh.

 

Each and every time I start logging higher than average mileage I notice that I have strange cravings for odd foods. (odd for me, anyway.) People commonly ask if I am preggers, which I most certainly am not. I just want all the strange foods ALL THE TIME. NOMNOM!

For example. For breakfast today I had sensible oatmeal, followed closely by pickles and cinnamon toast. That really is not right... But it really was so delicious.

 

I would like someone knowledgeable in nutrition to analyse the following data and explain it to me.

And "Sara, you eat all the strange foods because you are strange..." Is just not helping.

 

So. During Marathon training cycle #1 I was running high mileage during June and July. Yuck, it was very hot. Lots of sweating!

 

My top 3 food cravings were:

-GRAPEFRUIT!!! OMG GIVE IT TO ME!!!!

-Pickles. Dill, obvs.

-Vitamin Water- the XXX kind ONLY (btw, I tried to consume one of those the other day and was grossed out. I had to rinse my tongue under the faucet I was so disgusted...)

 

I ate an ass ton of grapefruit.
Like, a dozen a week. WTF?

Marathon Training Cycle number TWO rolled around during September and October and (as previously mentioned) was quite light on the miles and stress in comparison to round one. After running Around The Lake I have had ZERO grapefruit and ZERO vitamin water, so that was a one shot deal. I still ate my fair share of pickles but my cravings seemed to shift slightly.

 

Pre-MDI my top 3 food cravings were perfectly sensible. *ahem*

-KALE!!! ALL THE KALE!!!

-Twizzlers. So many bags of them. I'm embarrassed.

-Orange veggies. As a rule, my least favorite thing. However, I could not stop stuffing squash, sweet potato and carrots into my face at a high rate of speed. Yuck. I'm so over that.

I ate Kale in EVERYTHING.
Cups and cups a week. I might have turned into a kale plant.

So delicious.
So red and waxy.

Here I are now, in the dead of winter preparing like a teeny tiny superhero for Marathon number THREE.

Let it be known that I still am consuming upsetting quantities of kale, spinach, chard, whatever. I do not discriminate against any green leafy OMG delicious veggie.

 

At this juncture my top 3 wants are:

-Brussels sprouts!!! (I used to HATE them, now I LOVE them.)

-Twizzlers. I had to stop buying them it became so bad.... What the hell is wrong with me?

-Ginger ale. Out of everything this makes the least sense. I have strong feelings of dislike towards soda and have not consumed any in close to 10 years, I bet. After every long/challenging run it is ALL I WANT. So I drink it ALL. And IT. IS. AMAZING!

(And on off days I add a little bourbon, thank you very much.)

Get in my belly! I have a relationship with these little buggers...

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. Ginger ale. I love your face.

I think at this point it should be easy for all of you out there to understand my confusion. High mileage seems to give me cravings to eat things I would never want to consume otherwise! Please help a girl out and explain to me the logic behind this nutritional mess, I would most appreciate it!

A quick look back....

It was a heatwave yesterday. Like, 52 degrees.

I had some mile repeats to tackle so I dressed accordingly. And AWESOMELY!!!!

 

DEAD. SEXY.

Starting to think about the upcoming races. The Derry 16 miler is in less than 2 weeks. I expect that will be my "long" run for the week and I really enjoy a long run that maxes out at 16, not gonna lie.

Just the thought of 16 being an easy long got me to thinking.

1 year ago I had NEVER EVER run farther than 13.1. And I was mostly fine with that. Marathons were not legitimately on my crazy person radar yet.

And THEN I started thinking that two years ago I had NEVER EVER run farther than 6.2 miles. And I was A-OK with that too! (that might be a fib, as I was more or less in half marathon training.)

But really, the point of this rambling is that 3 years ago I did not run. At all. Not a single step ever.

I feel like I have made progress. (towards insanity, gahd...)

 

One year ago: Getting Ready to PR at an Indoor Half

 

Two years ago: When ALL my training was on a treadmill. The HORROR.

 

It is so strange that I went from being a nice normal lady to someone who sees no problems with running 40 plus miles a week, every week like it is no big deal. And who also sees no issue with the fact that every Friday afternoon/evening of my life is taken up by long runs of doom. Honestly, if anyone had told me 3 years ago that I'd be doing THIS I would have laughed them right out of the room. Oh well. I'm awesome :-) (and seriously, if I can do it so can 99% of you out there!) (well. not if you want to have any semblance of a "normal" life but who wants that?)

 

My week of training....

Any post that features me looking badass and tough is clearly going for the win.

                                                 Don't mess, I'll get you with my neon.

I was a blogging slacker last week because of two big important reasons. ONE: Things were going REALLY well and I didn't want to jinx mah shiz.
TWO: Do you all REALLY want to hear daily details? Maybe. I am pretty amazing and exciting after all. And fashionable to boot.
Anyway...
15 miles was my long run last week with 3 of the miles at a sub 8 pace. Effing brutal. But fine.
The weekend was normal stuff, easy Saturday run, 7 mile Sunday with striders. Both good.
I started the week with a progressive tempo run. It was fine in the way that pain and agony are fine.
Then I had a day off.
Then I want to spin, which was a legit sweaty mess this week. Good stuff.
The day after that I had an easy 5 which was good because my legs were junk.
On Friday I pounded out 18, at an 8:45 pace and felt just fine about it.
Happily, Saturday was an off day!
Sunday was an easy hour of easy running. Gotta love easy anything... That's what she said? However. This run was actually a strugglebus. My legs felt junky from their day off post long run and my belly felt just awful from an ill advised slice of pizza. So dumb. It was also absurdly foggy- foggy enough to soak me thru and to make my eyelashes weigh 15 pounds each. Gross.

Anywhoo. At this point, nightmares aside, I'm still feeling good. I'm really practicing my happy-mental-marathon place (not to be confused with the state that most marathoners are typically in FYI) Remembering back to MDI I firmly believe that it felt like an easy marathon because I told myself 14,897 times that it was going to be one! So Hyannis, you are going to be an easy marathon, my legs are going to be turbo charged rock stars, and I am going to make you my best friend. So there...

Marathon Nightmares!!!!

I awoke on Friday morning terribly upset because I had a dreadful marathon nightmare!!! I firmly believe that it is just too early for that kind of absurdity. Seriously marathon nightmares- can't you have the decency to wait until I'm tapering??

OK so my dream started out at mile 20 (Of Hyannis) when I looked at my watch only to discover that I was significantly- I mean significantly- ahead of my goal pace. Needless to say I was delighted and amazed by my obvious physical prowess.

Then things took a turn for the worse.

                                        Because I saw this little bump. UM? Flat course???

I am a chronic hill runner so I did not let this small change of plans rattle me. Up I went. The problem? Once I was at the top there was nowhere else to go. Nowhere...I was forced to wait a long time for a Gondola. It wasn't quite as awesome as this one. I climbed in and zipped around a few bends in a very Disney ride sort of way and was deposited off in the middle of the woods. Huh.

Just a normal day at the Marathon.

I hate heights. This would never work out for me..

I disembarked from the Gondola to find that, not shockingly, my legs were starting to cramp up. I tried to ease back into running and felt like my legs weighed 500 pounds each and were glued to the road. Then things got worse. Out of the blue, Eric's big tall friend Ben caught up to be and passed me! On a side note, as bad as the dream had been to this point this was the turning point for me into legit nightmare. This is a really random thing to have happen too, as I have only met Ben one time.

This is Big Tall Ben.
He's like 7'5" no kidding.
He is going to be running Hyannis and I'm wondering if I should be scared!

I was just horrified that Big Tall Ben was going to beat me. It really ruffled my feathers so I tried to get my huge 500 pound legs to run. They really, really didn't want to but I got going at a shuffle. A slow, laborious, nightmarish shuffle of doom.

As I came into the last 3 miles I remembered that they had to be run a few times around a city. A confusing city with no volunteers to point the way and no signs. No help at all. CRAP!

I was suspicious that it was rather like the Financial District.
It was worse in my dream though...

I tried and failed to find my way. I sat on the curb because my gigantic lead filled legs just couldn't keep running, and I waited for another runner to go by and lead the way. Someone finally did and I followed them for miles before I realized that it was a recreational runner off for a Sunday jog. UGH!!! I finally crossed the finish line, in 3:37:00 which was amazing considering my debacle but utterly disapointing especially considering that at mile 20 I was running for like, a 3:03:00!

I walked around to locate Eric and found him drinking beer and shopping in a horse tack store with Big Tall Ben. This struck me as wrong on many levels. He had also beaten me, and beaten me so soundly that I had never even seen him out on the course. Again, this struck me as wrong.

I was honestly a bit upset by this dream! It took me the whole day to shake it off and I thought it probably meant that I was going to have a terrible, terrible long run! (I did not.) 

I am very hopeful that this is it for the Marathon nightmares and that they do not become a trend around here.  They are exhausting and ridiculous and insulting.