Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Wednesday Workout Update - I am Dumb Edition

Alternate title, I'm a cotton-headed ninnymuggins.  Either way, it boils down to the fact that I didn't read our route correctly - yes, the route that I mapped out, thank you very much - and because of that, Amy and I ended up covering 12 miles on Saturday instead of our intended 11.  Ouch.

Although several other people from our group came out to run on Saturday, Amy and I were the only ones doing 11 miles.  Jeff tweaked his back a week ago and couldn't run, so we were solo on our adventure.  I'm not going to lie...this was a mental challenge, knowing that we had to run so many miles.  I think we are both pretty much over the long distances at this point.  But, we wouldn't do ourselves any favors by shortening the run, considering our half marathon is in three weeks, so off we went.  We decided to stick to 1:1 intervals since we had so far to go - there will be plenty of time to work on running continuously when we only have a few miles on tap.  I have to say, the first five miles felt pretty good.  We reached our water stop at mile 7 (Jeff had left a gallon of water out for us) and refilled our bottles, plus we both were really thirsty and drank extra before topping off and continuing.  I think this was where Amy asked me if we only had to go to a certain point (about another quarter mile) and I said "no, we have to go all the way to the end" - oops.  That was my bad...my BIG bad.  During the entire run, I was trying to not look at my Garmin except to note mileage for when it was time to take a GU - I didn't want to focus on HOW MUCH FARTHER we had to go...but that, combined with a bad case of runner's brain (you get fuzzy after many miles), was why it didn't click with me that our distance was off.

On and on we ran.  We hit our turnaround point and eventually got back to the water, where again, we were super thirsty!  I swear, we both drank more during this run than we do during a hot and humid run...between the two of us, we downed half a gallon of water, plus what was in each of our water bottles to begin with.  We turned into the fancy neighborhood, and took our new favorite shortcut - a different street, where we usually see lots of deer, plus some neat houses.    But it was at this point that Amy looked at her GPS watch and said "we have way more than half a mile to go" - oooooh no!  I looked at my Garmin and sure enough, we were already at 10.5 miles...ugh.  We ended up running to 11 miles and then walked the last mile in.  Two funny things about that - first, when we started our run, Amy mentioned that it was nice we didn't have to do 12 miles, since that's what we did during our official training.  Haha, joke's on us, right?  Second, Jeff was waiting at home for us to finish, so he could meet us at Blue Baker for breakfast.  I guess he figured we'd been out long enough and drove out to pick up the water, and then drove past us as we were getting close to the park.  By then, we were weaving and incomprehensibly giddy - he just waved and drove on.  I almost cried.  He drove back a few minutes later after realizing that something was off and offered us a ride, but we were determined to finish the entire 12 miles on our own, so we did.  Huzzah?
 
Tired, tired, tired - but looking fabulous in our new running jackets!

For the second week in a row, I got blisters.  I didn't feel them forming until mile 8 or 9, so the obvious (to me, anyway) solution would be to run no more than 5 miles at a time...but next week we have 8 on tap, and that pesky half  marathon soon.  It's frustrating because although I am wearing new shoes (which I thought I'd broken in enough), I really haven't changed anything - they are the same style, size and even color as my old ones.

I stretched once I got home, and again later that evening - my "Stretchy New Year" resolution seems to be helping as my legs weren't feeling crippled after this run.  Of course, maybe I was focusing on all the blister pain instead, but I'd like to think that the stretching is making a difference.

********************

As with much of the country, we are experiencing very cold temperatures, plus the wind is making it feel even worse, so for the past couple of days, I've stayed inside...no running for me.  I have started doing planks again, and I rode the exercise bike for a short while yesterday, but I got pretty bored with that (plus my knitting was calling me).  Hopefully tomorrow I'll get back on track with my running.  Funny that I can feel guilty about running, even after doing such a long run on Saturday - but I do believe that regular, vs. extreme, exercise is the way to go.

23 comments:

  1. Well at least you both know you are definitely ready for that half with the 12 miles under your belt. I had to laugh imagining you weaving at Jeff and him weaving back and drive on. I know if it happened to me I would want to cry too.

    Well this must be the first that it's colder where you live than where I live. We are having temperatures that suits Spring instead of January. But it will be over this weekend. Some stupid weather idiot :) says we can expect snow next week: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's about time you suffer like the rest of us with winter weather!! ;)

      All I can say is that Amy will probably never trust me again with a route (and rightly so, haha).

      Delete
    2. LOL actually the weather we are having is pretty normal for my country (except for the higher temperatures). Snow isn't all that common here (thank goodness), we've had it the past 2 winters but been without it for years before that.

      Delete
  2. OH MY GOODNESS. TWELVE?
    I might have to knit for days to recover.

    xo

    ReplyDelete
  3. Plus, you now have the added benefit of KNOWING you can handle that next half. The sentence about Jeff driving by and waving made me laugh out loud! (sorry).

    I heard last night on the news that the entire country - all 50 states (yes including Hawaii!) had below freezing temperatures. Again I say the best thing about winter is when it's OVER.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. EVEN HAWAII??? Yikes! Hopefully winter will be short this year - go groundhog!?

      Very true about knowing we can handle the next half...and yeah, it was kind of funny (funnier NOW) when Jeff drove by.

      Delete
  4. I agree with the regular vs. extreme. I know I feel consistently better now. But if I skip a day I feel it too. Stretchy New Year LOL. Keep talking about that and the planks. I'm really hoping it'll rub off on me!

    The blisters--OUCH OUCH OUCH!!!! I wonder if that stuff they make for dogs pads (to toughen them up) would work for runners?!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dog pad toughener? I've never heard of it, but you can bet a runner has probably tried it, lol!

      Delete
  5. OK, I'm gonna have to steal "a cotton-headed ninnymuggins."

    Having absolutely NO sense of direction, I get lost virtually every time I wander out the front door, and have often gone on longer runs than I meant by losing my way. But wow, 12 miles, that's a long route, congrats! But sorry about the blisters, that sucks. :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Steal away...cotton-headed ninnymuggins is from Elf. :)

      Delete
  6. The sentence "the first five miles felt pretty good" caught my eye - that's a pretty big deal!! I hope someday I can say the same thing (of course, I have to start running first!). :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Baby steps...and one day, you'll be saying the same thing about five miles!

      Delete
  7. I'm a little in love with the term "cotton-headed ninnmuggins". May it warm up enough for you to go for a run today Shelley! Have a good one!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I hate that when you think you are going to go a set distance and it's longer. Then you have no choice but to finish or you don't get home! That happens to us sometimes with our rides.

    I still think I will take a cold day in the south over what we have right now here :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was exactly our dilemma...we had to keep going in order to get home! Or, as a funny running poster says, "where the food is" - lol!

      Delete
  9. I have a friend that never measures the "route" correctly. We've started calling our 7+ miles, a "Sonya 6", haha.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think I accidentally ran long once too, but it was only the difference between 4 or 5 miles. If I'm doing a long run, I'll run the 2 miles to the lake (I know the exact spot my watch will beep!), then follow the trail signs, then run the same 2 miles home, just to avoid that. I can't imagine having to actually map out my long runs! Or worse, calculate distance while actually on a long run - my brain gets fuzzy too!

    You don't want to run in the extreme cold just to see what it's like? :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Most of our runs are already mapped out (by me) from last season's training, but I changed up this one since discovering how nice the new (to us) street is in the fancy neighborhood.

      And I'd run in the extreme cold if I was meeting a group of friends to suffer with. On my own? Heck no! :)

      Delete
  11. I love your blog! I stumbled across it during my extended Christmas vacation from school. We have been buried under a foot of snow with negative double digit temps which have cancelled school in our area. I too, am a 50 something runner (actually closer to 60) who started running later in life. I am pretty slow but I don't care. My husband and I have run many half marathons, trail races, and I even ran my first marathon a year ago at Disney World with two of our daughters. I run/walk and find that most people in my area don't consider this as running. But I do. So I love that fact that you do the same. Most of the blogs I read are of runners who run 6,7,8, and even 9 minutes miles. I on the other hand am a steady 12 minute miler. Occasionally I can run a 5K at a high 11 min mile but I pay for it the next day. Anyway, I'm just so happy I found a blog that I can actually relate to. If you'd like to visit my blog I'm at www.shufflescrapsparkle.blogspot.com.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awesome - I'm so glad you found me and I'm looking forward to reading your blog! Welcome, Chris!!

      Delete
  12. You'll be so prepared for your half by accidentally doing 12 miles, even if by accident! I haven't made it a specific goal, but I'd like to do at least ONE race in 2014 - the last one I did was in 2008!! Crazy!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You and your sister should pick a 5K to do together!

      Delete

Comments are now moderated to prevent spammers from leaving, well, spam - but rest assured that as soon as I read a real comment, I will publish it. So please, comment away, even though the blog is officially closed. Thanks!