A Wicked Hard Run

I just finished week 10 of training. I've been getting a little lazy and not doing my Monday cross training and at least 1 weekday run. I can't afford to do that anymore, because now it is getting really intense.

Last week looked like this:
Monday--skipped
Tuesday--3 miles
Wednesday--7 miles
Thursday--skipped
Friday--rest
Saturday--10 miles

This week looked like this:
Monday--skipped
Tuesday--skipped
Wednesday--7 miles, under 73 minutes
Thursday--4 miles, 38 minutes
Friday--rest
Saturday--15 miles, 2 hours 45 minutes (with 4 or 5 walking breaks)

The 15 miler killed! I wasn't prepared mentally or physically for it, but even if I had been it still would have been incredibly tough. I started out by not going to bed until 1am the night before. But I did get an awesome 8+ hours of uninterrupted sleep.

I only ate 2 waffles and a handful of peanuts before the run. I took my water, Gatorade and 1 granola bar with me, which I had finished off by the half way point. Pedro called me every hour to check on how I was doing. Around mile 8.5 he came to my rescue with more water, Gatorade and a snickers bar. Not to mention the van full of kids chanting "run, mommy, run!" That was a big boost.

Oh ya, did I mention I started my run at 3:30 in the afternoon? I prefer to run in the mornings. I was running a new route and one of the roads I was on was curvy and narrow. I knew I had to get past that road before it got dark. I hit that road around 5:45. I had to speed up if I was going to get through it before it became to dangerous to run there. Speed up I did. Until I hit the hills, and man, those hills were tough! I kept running and I made it to a neighborhood with street lights and sidewalks by the time it was starting to get dark. It got really dark by mile 14, but I was so close to home and the road I was running is normally empty, so I just kept plodding along. I got home and wanted to just D.I.E.

Couldn't die just yet though. I grabbed my daughter and had her hold my hand while we walked around the block to let my muscles cool down. I came home and stretched on the floor. My other daughter decided to help me stretch by laying on top of me however she could.

I was a mess. I could barely hobble around. I iced and took a bath with some Epsom salts--bad idea as I almost fell asleep in the tub. This morning the alarm went off and I couldn't get my legs to move enough to propel me out of bed. So I just laid there and listened to the annoying beeping sound. My legs feel like they're filled with lead. The bottoms of my feet are sore and my toes are covered in blisters. My knees don't want to bend. And yet, I still run.

Yesterday's run gave way to lots of negative thoughts. Almost 3 hours worth. Wondering if I can do this. Wondering if I really want to do this. Wondering if the hours of work and dedication are worth it. Wishing I could just take off 1 Saturday. But knowing if I did, it would set me back like nothing else. Remembering that I'm only half-way through with this training and the miles are just going to increase.

But then I had to tell myself that it was just an off-day. Not enough calories, not enough rest, a late run. So we'll see how next week goes and take it from there.